\> 


,60 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


*      *      \-    /r 
Jjwiri*"*  ^J 


VEXILLA  REGIS 


VEXILLA  REGIS 
©uotitue 


L«   B.   S. 


BOSTON 

batety  JDri 

MDCCCXCIII 


ONE  HUNDRED  COPIES  PRINTED  FOR 
THE  COMPILER  AT  THE  RIVERSIDE 
PRESS,  CAMBRIDGE,  UNDER  THE  SU- 
PERVISION OF  D.  B.  UPDIKE,  SIX 
BEACON  STREET,  BOSTON. 
THE  SELECTIONS  FROM  LONGFEL- 
LOW, LOWELL,  WHITTIER,  AND  EM- 
ERSON ARE  USED  BY  PERMISSION  OF 
MESSRS.  HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO. 


j 


CONTENTS 

ANUARY 

God's  Appointments  Plain 

Music 

Compassion       .... 
A  Cluster  of  Graces 


FEBRUARY 
Intercession 
Bearing  the  Cross 
Simplicity. 
Man's  Judgments  . 

MARCH 

Warfare     .... 
The  Wrath  of  Man 
God's  Love  for  Individuals 
Woman.    The  Virgin   . 

APRIL 

The  Heathen     . 
Grief  for  the  Loss  of  One 
Reunion    .... 
Self-Sacrifice  .... 

MAY 

Solitude     .... 

Society 

God  Alone  Enough  for  Us 
Knowing  God 

JUNE 

Doubts      .... 

Faith 

Perfection  through  Suffering 
Knowledge  from  Obedience  . 


JULY 

Freedom   .        .        .        ,        .        .        .  .82 

Liberty  .         .        ,        .  '      .        .       '.  .        85 

Intellect.     Genius     .        .       yj';            *  .88 

Aspects  of  Sin       .        .      <  .        ,        .  .        91 

AUGUST 

Animals     .        .        .        .        *        .        .  .96 

The  Sea         .        .        .        ,      :.       >  .      100 

Mysticism          .        .  ....  .V,     ....  .  103 

Rich  and  Poor       .      r.  '  ',        .        •;  106 

SEPTEMBER 

Old  Age    .        .        .        ...  ,>       ..   -    .  .113 

Skepticism     ....  116 

Childlike  Obedience         .        .        .    '    .  .119 

Mystery.        .        .        ,v      .       .vr"^Vv  •      122 

OCTOBER 

Entering  into  the  Labors  of  Others         ^-^  .  126 

Time ^      129 

Good  Stronger  than  Evil  .        .        .        .  .  132 

Punishment   .        .       ^  -      . ;      .        .  3.       134 

NOVEMBER 

Atonement         .        ...       .     •    .        .  .   140 

Tides  of  the  Soul  .        •     f   .'       .        .  d      143 

Fate  .        ........        .  .146 

Sad  World             .        .        .        ;        .  .149 

DECEMBER 

Peace -  ^  .        ^  =    .  154 

Love  to  God  and  Man 1 57 

The  Power  of  Faith  and  Love  .        •        »  160 

Repentance,  Aspiration,  Mercy    .            J  9,      164 


FOR  THE  MONTH   OF 
JANUARY 


Appointments  Plain 

TN  the  shadow  of  his  hand  hath  he  hid  me,  and 
made  me  a  polished  shaft  ;  in  his  quiver  hath 
he  hid  me.  —  ISAIAH  xlix.  2. 

But  let  patience  have  her  perfect  work. 

s.  JAMES  i.  4. 

Be  thou  faithful  unto  death  and  I  will  give  thee 
a  crown  of  life.  —  REVELATION  ii.  10. 

II    And  so  in  Cordova  through  patient  nights 
Columbus  watches,  or  he  sails  in  dreams 
Between  the  setting  stars  and  finds  new  day  ; 
Then  wakes  again  to  the  old  weary  days, 
Girds  on  the  cord  and  frock  of  pale  Saint  Francis, 
And  like  him  zealous  pleads  with  foolish  men. 
"  I  ask  but  for  a  million  maravedis  ; 
Give  me  three  caravels  to  find  a  world, 
New  shores,  new  realms,  new  soldiers  for  the  Cross 
Son  cosas  grandes  !  "     Thus  he  pleads  in  vain  ; 
Yet  faints  not  utterly,  but  pleads  anew, 
Thinking,  "  God  means  it,  and  has  chosen  me." 

GEORGE  ELIOT. 


JANUARY 

ill  We  are  all  of  us  like  the  weavers  of  the  Gobe- 
lins, who,  following  out  the  pattern  of  an 
unknown  artist,  endeavor  to  match  the  threads  of 
divers  colors  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  woof,  and 
do  not  see  the  result  of  their  labor.  It  is  only 
when  the  texture  is  complete,  that  they  can  admire 
at  their  ease  these  lovely  flowers  and  figures,  those 
splendid  pictures  worthy  of  the  palaces  of  kings. 
So  it  is  with  us,  my  friends :  we  work,  we  suffer,  and 
v/e  see  neither  the  end  nor  the  fruit.  But  God  sees 
it;  and  when  He  releases  us  from  our  task,  He  will 
disclose  to  our  wondering  gaze  what  He,  the  great 
Artist,  everywhere  present  and  invisible,  has  woven 
out  of  those  toils  that  now  seem  to  us  so  sterile,  and 
He  will  then  deign  to  hang  up  in  His  palace  of  gold 
the  flimsy  web  that  we  have  spun.  —  F.  OZANAM. 

|jj  It  is  God  who  prepares  men  when  He  intends 
to  use  them,  and  who  gives  them  just  what  they 
require  for  their  work,  and  that  by  a  marvelous  suc- 
cession of  events,  the  connection  of  which  can  only 
be  seen  when  we  examine  the  whole  chain.  As  I 
glance  over  my  own  life,  from  whatever  side  I  view 
it  I  see  it  all  converging  to  the  point  where  I  now 
stand.  —  LACORDAIRE. 

j)  No  sane  man  at  last  distrusts  himself.  His 
existence  is  a  perfect  answer  to  all  sentimental 
cavils.  If  he  is,  he  is  wanted  and  has  the  precise 
properties  that  are  required.  That  we  are  here  is 
proof  we  ought  to  be  here.  —  EMERSON. 

2 


JANUARY 

Patience  is  the  part 

Of  all  whom  Time  records  among  the  great, 
The  only  gift  I  know,  the  only  art, 
To  strengthen  up  our  frailties  to  our  fate. 

T.  PARSONS. 

jj|  I  try  as  much  as  I  can  to  let  nothing  distress 
me,  and  to  take  everything  that  happens  as  for 
the  best.  I  believe  that  this  is  a  duty,  and  that  we 
sin  in  not  doing  so.  For,  in  short,  the  reason  why 
sins  are  sins  is  only  because  they  are  contrary  to 
the  will  of  God ;  and  the  essence  of  sin  thus  con- 
sisting in  having  a  will  opposed  to  that  which  we 
know  to  be  of  God,  it  is  plain,  it  appears  to  me, 
that  when  He  discovers  His  will  to  us  by  events, 
it  would  be  a  sin  not  to  conform  ourselves  to  it. 

PASCAL. 

Jjtl    When  the  soul  has  reached  a  certain  degree  of 
elevation  towards  God,  she  easily  despises  life, 
and  then  it  is  that  God  binds  her  to  life  once  more 
by  the  ties  of  duty.     Life  is  a  very  important  busi- 
ness, though  often  enough  we  do  not  see  its  utility. 
Drops  of  water  as  we  are,  we  ask  what  the  ocean 
can  want  with  us,  and  the  ocean  might  reply  that  it 
is  made  up  of  such  drops.  —  LACORDAIRE. 
In  life's  small  things  be  resolute  and  great 
To  keep  thy  muscle  trained  :  know'st  thou  when 

Fate 

Thy  measure  takes,  or  when  she  '11  say  to  thee, 
"  I  find  thee  worthy  ;  do  this  deed  for  me  "  ? 

LOWELL. 


JANUARY 


JRttffe 

tJUt    Jubal :  he  was  the  father  of  all  such  as  han- 
dle the  harp  and  organ.  —  GENESIS  iv.  21. 
David  took  an  harp,  and  played  with  his  hand : 
so  Saul  was  refreshed,  and  was  well,  and  the  evil 
spirit  departed  from  him.  —  i  SAMUEL  xvi.  23. 

j£  You  do  not  perhaps  know  that  Music  was  among 
the  Greeks  quite  the  first  means  of  education ; 
and  that  it  was  so  connected  with  their  system  of 
ethics  and  of  intellectual  training,  that  the  God  of 
Music  is  with  them  also  the  God  of  Righteousness  ; 
the  God  who  purges  and  avenges  iniquity,  and  con- 
tends with  their  Satan  as  represented  under  the  form 
of  Python,  "  the  corrupter."  And  the  Greeks  were 
incontrovertibly  right  in  this.  Music  is  the  nearest 
at  hand,  the  most  orderly,  the  most  delicate,  of  all 
bodily  pleasures ;  it  is  also  the  only  one  which  is 
equally  helpful  to  all  the  ages  of  man,  —  helpful 
from  the  nurse's  song  to  her  infant,  to  the  music, 
unheard  of  others,  which  often,  if  not  most  fre- 
quently, haunts  the  death-bed  of  pure  and  innocent 
spirits.  —  RUSKIN. 

£    I  have  not  long  to  trouble  thee.  —  Good  Griffith, 

Cause  the  musicians  play  me  that  sad  note 
I  named  my  knell,  whilst  I  sit  meditating 
On  that  celestial  harmony  I  go  to. 

SHAKESPEARE. 

4 


JANUARY 

jft    Oh  !  silence  that  clarion  in  mercy  — 

For  it  carries  my  soul  away ; 
And  it  whirls  my  thoughts  out  beyond  me, 
Like  the  leaves  on  an  autumn  day. 

Oh !  exquisite  tyranny  —  silence  — 
My  soul  slips  from  under  my  hand, 
And  as  if  by  instinct  is  fleeing 
To  a  dread  unvisited  land. 

Thou  Lord  art  the  Father  of  music ; 
Sweet  sounds  are  a  whisper  from  Thee ; 
Thou  hast  made  Thy  creation  all  anthems, 
Though  it  singeth  them  silently. 

FABER. 

£11  Music :  is  it  not  to  tender  and  poetic  souls, 
to  wounded  and  suffering  hearts  a  text  which 
they  interpret  as  their  memories  need?  If  the 
heart  of  a  poet  must  be  given  to  a  musician,  must 
not  poetry  and  love  be  listeners  ere  the  great  musical 
works  of  art  are  understood  ?  Religion,  love,  and 
music  :  are  they  not  the  triple  expression  of  the  fact 
—  the  need  of  expansion,  the  need  of  touching  with 
their  own  infinite  the  infinite  beyond  them,  which 
is  in  the  fibre  of  all  noble  souls  ?  These  three  forms 
of  poesy  end  in  God,  who  alone  can  unwind  the 
knot  of  earthly  emotion.  Thus  this  holy  human 
trinity  joins  itself  to  the  holiness  of  God,  of  whom 
we  make  to  ourselves  no  conception  unless  we 
surround  Him  by  the  fires  of  love  and  the  golden 
cymbals  of  music  and  light  and  harmony.  —  BALZAC. 
5 


JANUARY 

Music  is  an  outward  and  earthly  economy, 
under  which  great  wonders  are  typified:  To 
many  men  the  very  names  which  the  science  employs 
are  utterly  incomprehensible.  To  speak  of  an  idea 
or  a  subject  seems  to  be  fanciful  or  trifling,  to  speak 
of  the  views  it  opens  upon  us,  to  be  childish  extrava- 
gance ;  yet  is  it  possible  that  that  inexhaustible  evo- 
lution and  disposition  of  notes,  so  rich  yet  so  simple, 
so  intricate  yet  so  regulated,  so  various  yet  so  majes- 
tic, should  be  a  mere  sound,  that  those  mysterious 
stirrings  of  the  heart,  and  keen  emotions,  and 
strange  yearnings  after  we  know  not  what,  and 
awful  impressions  from  we  know  not  whence,  should 
be  wrought  in  us  by  what  is  unsubstantial,  and 
comes  and  goes,  and  begins  and  ends  in  itself? 
It  is  not  so,  it  cannot  be.  No,  they  have  escaped 
from  some  higher  sphere,  they  are  the  outpouring 
of  eternal  harmony  in  the  medium  of  created  sound ; 
they  are  echoes  from  our  Home,  they  are  the  voice 
of  angels,  or  the  Magnificat  of  saints,  or  the  living 
laws  of  Divine  Governance,  or  the  Divine  Attri- 
butes —  something  are  they  besides  themselves, 
which  we  cannot  compass,  which  we  cannot  utter, 
though  mortal  man  has  the  gift  of  eliciting  them. 

CARDINAL  NEWMAN. 

jftfo     Till  David  touched  his  sacred  lyre 
In  silence  lay  the  unbreathing  wire, 
But  when  he  swept  its  chords  along, 

The  angels  stooped  to  hear  the  song. 
So  sleeps  the  soul  till  thou,  O  Lord, 
Shalt  deign  to  touch  its  lifeless  chord  ; 
6 


JANUARY 

Till,  waked  by  Thee,  its  breath  shall  rise 
In  music  worthy  of  the  skies. 

MOORE. 


Companion 

]£J)    His  compassions  fail  not. 

LAMENTATIONS  iii.  22. 

Be  ye  all  of  one  mind,  having  compassion  one  of 
another,  love  as  brethren,  be  pitiful,  be  courteous. 

I  PETER  iii.  8. 

£J)j    To  mercy,  pity,  peace,  and  love 

All  pray  in  their  distress, 
And  to  those  virtues  of  delight 
Return  their  thankfulness. 

For  Mercy  has  a  human  heart  ; 
Pity,  a  human  face  ; 
And  Love,  the  human  form  divine  ; 
And  Peace,  the  human  dress. 

WILLIAM  BLAKE. 


Perhaps  here  lay  the  secret  of  the  hardness 
he  had  accused  himself  of  :  he  had  too  little 
fellow-feeling  with  the  weakness  that  errs  in  spite 
of  foreseen  consequences.    Without  this  fellow-feel- 
ing how  are  we  to  get  enough  patience  and  charity 
toward  our  stumbling,   falling  companions  in  the 
long  and  changeful  journey?     And  there  is  but 
one  way  in  which  a  strong  determined  soul  can 
7 


JANUARY 

learn  it  —  by  getting  his  heartstrings  bound  round 
the  weak  and  erring,  so  that  he  must  share  not  only 
the  outward  consequence  of  their  error,  but  their 
inward  suffering.  —  GEORGE  ELIOT. 

jfyfti     If  the  heart  be  right  with   God,  He  will 
weigh  the  rest  in  a  balance  of  compassion. 

CARDINAL  MANNING. 

jft£     If  only  dear  to  God  the  strong 

That  never  trip  nor  wander, 
Where  were  the  throng  whose  morning  song 
Thrills  His  blue  arches  yonder  ? 

LOWELL. 

jpj?     Clear  images  before  your  gladdened  eyes 

Of  nature's  unambitious  underwood 
And  flowers  that  prosper  in  the  shade.    And  when 
I  speak  of  such  among  the  flock  as  swerved 
Or  fell,  those  only  shall  be  singled  out 
Upon  whose  lapse  or  error  something  more 
Than  brotherly  forgiveness  may  attend. 

WORDSWORTH. 

££|    Breathe   for  his  wandering  soul  one  passing 

sigh, 

O  happier  Christian,  while  thine  eye  grows  dim,  — 
In  all  the  mansions  of  the  house  on  high 
Say  not  that  Mercy  has  not  one  for  him. 

o.  w.  HOLMES. 
8 


JANUARY 
21  Cluster  of  (Braces 

Add  to  your  faith  virtue;  and  to  virtue 
knowledge;  and  to  knowledge  temperance; 
and  to  temperance  patience  ;  and  to  patience  god- 
liness ;  and  to  godliness  brotherly  kindness  ;  and 
to  brotherly  kindness  charity. 

II  PETER  i.  5,  6,  7. 


Therefore  it  behooves  you  to  give  yourself 
up  to  Him  in  perfect  confidence,  and  so  to 
fulfil  all  your  duties  towards  God  or  man,  as  freely 
and  fully  as  if  you  had  the  most  vivid  conscious- 
ness of  that  upholding  grace,  and  that  because 
faith  gives  us  so  much  more  certain  assurance  than 
even  our  own  sense  and  experience  can  give.  I 
would  far  rather  know  by  God's  own  promise  that 
His  help  is  ever  present,  and  that  He  wills  me  to 
live  by  His  Holy  Spirit  and  be  led  by  His  grace, 
than  merely  to  feel  it  to  be  so  ;  and  realize  His 
guiding  Hand  by  my  own  consciousness.  My  own 
feeling  and  experience  might  be  deceived  and 
might  mislead  me,  but  God  is  infallible,  and  where 
He  speaks,  our  reason  and  senses  have  no  further 
claim  to  be  heard.  —  PERE  DE  CONDREN. 

The  virtue  of  prosperity  is  temperance,  the 
virtue  of  adversity  is  fortitude.  Prosperity 
is  the  blessing  of  the  Old  Testament,  adversity  is 
the  blessing  of  the  New,  which  carrieth  the  greater 
benediction,  and  the  clearer  revelation  of  God's 
favor.  —  BACON. 

9 


JANUARY 

££jj  The  more  we  know  the  less  narrow  are  our 
minds.  Our  sphere  of  vision  is  increased. 
Our  horizon  is  wider.  We  appreciate  the  manifold 
varieties  of  grace  and  of  vocations.  We  see  how 
God's  glory  finds  its  account  in  almost  infinite  di- 
versity, and  how  holiness  can  be  at  home  in  oppo- 
sites,  nay,  how  what  is  wrong  in  this  man  is  accept- 
able, perhaps  heroic,  in  that  other  man.  Hence,  we 
free  ourselves  from  little  jealousies,  from  unchari- 
table doubts,  from  unworthy  suspicions,  from  nar- 
row criticisms,  things  which  are  the  especial  dis- 
eases of  little  great  men  and  little  good  men,  and 
which  may  be  said  to  frustrate  one  third,  if  not 
more,  of  all  the  good  works  which  are  attempted  in 
the  Church.  Goodness  which  is  not  greatness  also 
is  a  sad  misfortune.  While  it  saves  its  own  soul 
it  will  not  let  others  save  theirs.  Especially  does 
it  contrive,  in  proportion  to  its  influence,  to  put  a 
spoke  in  the  wheel  of  all  progress,  and  has  almost 
a  talent  for  interfering  with  the  salvation  of  souls. 
Now,  if  reading  did  no  more  than  abate  the  viru- 
lence of  any  one  of  the  diseases  mentioned  above, 
would  it  not  be  a  huge  work  ?  —  FABER. 

Mother,  I  implore  you  do  not  be  terrified,  or 
arrested  in  your  task,  by  the  wilderness  of 
knowledges  which  seem  requisite.  One  may  choose 
from  all  these  the  true  points,  —  few  but  fruitful,  dif- 
ficult doubtless  to  many  minds,  —  but  to  you,  mo- 
ther, whose  mind  seems  new  to  me  every  day,  and 
whose  soul,  whether  from  the  advance  of  years, 
or  whether  from  its  wondrous  temperance,  wholly 
10 


JANUARY 

freed  from  the  deceptions  of  the  world  and  from 
the  hard  servitude  of  the  senses,  has  power  to  grow 
and  rise  mightily  within  itself — to  you,  beloved 
mother,  these  things  will  be  as  easy  as  they  would 
be  hard  to  the  sluggish  understanding  of  all  those 
souls  who  live  so  miserably.  —  s.  AUGUSTINE. 

£jtf)ti    Angel  of  Patience !  sent  to  calm 

Our  feverish  brows  with  cooling  palm ; 
To  lay  the  storms  of  hope  and  fear, 
And  reconcile  life's  smile  and  tear; 
The  throbs  of  wounded  pride  to  still 
And  make  our  own  our  Father's  will ! 

O  thou  who  mournest  on  thy  way, 
With  longings  for  the  close  of  day, 
He  walks  with  thee,  that  Angel  kind, 
And  gently  whispers,  "  Be  resigned : 
Bear  up,  bear  on,  the  end  shall  tell 
The  dear  Lord  ordereth  all  things  well !  " 

FROM  GERMAN  BY  WHITTIER. 

So  far  as  I  can  see  I  am  not  under  the 
sway  of  any  strong  attachment  to  any  cre- 
ated thing,  not  even  to  all  the  bliss  of  Heaven,  but 
only  to  the  love  of  God ;  and  this  does  not  grow  less  — 
on  the  contrary,  I  believe  it  is  growing  together  with 
the  longing  that  all  men  may  serve  Him.  ...  I  am 
at  peace  within,  and  my  likings  and  dislikings  have 
so  little  power  to  take  from  me  the  Presence  of  the 
Three  Persons  of  which,  while  it  continues,  it  is  so 
impossible  to  doubt,  that  I  seem  clearly  to  know 
II 


JANUARY 

by  experience  what  is  recorded  by  St.  John,  that 
God  will  make  His  dwelling  in  the  soul,  and  not 
only  by  grace,  but  because  He  will  have  the  soul 
feel  that  presence.  —  s.  THERESA. 

££j£     The  kingdom  of  established  peace 

Which  can  no  more  remove, 
The  perfect  powers  of  godliness, 
The  omnipotence  of  love. 

C.  WESLEY. 

)££  God  is  not  satisfied  with  words  and  thoughts, 
my  sisters.  He  requires  effects  and  actions. 
If,  therefore,  you  see  a  sick  person  whom  you  can  in 
any  way  relieve,  leave  your  devotions  courageously 
to  do  so.  Have  compassion  for  what  she  suffers, 
and  let  her  suffering  be  as  your  own.  The  love  of 
God  does  not  consist  in  shedding  tears,  nor  in  that 
satisfaction  and  tenderness  which  we  ordinarily  de- 
sire because  they  are  consoling :  it  consists  in  serv- 
ing God  with  courage,  in  acting  justly,  in  practising 
humility.  —  s.  THERESA. 

Jtffi  We  are  daily  tempted  and  solicited  into  rash 
and  self-fettering  judgments.  . . .  When  we 
have  once  judged  a  man,  we  have,  as  it  were,  closed 
his  access  to  us  at  all  unexpected  avenues.  We  are 
pledged  to  one  view  of  him  ;  he  is  no  more  an  infi- 
nite possibility  to  us ;  we  have  measured  him,  cal- 
culated our  expectations  from  him,  and  never  more 
can  look  to  him  with  the  freshness  and  reverence 
of  an  undefined  hope.  A  man  that  will  do  this 

12 


JANUARY 

towards  a  child  has  closed  his  heart  against  much 
that  might  enrich  it.  A  sage  will  listen  with  an 
interest  approaching  to  awe  to  the  revelations  of  a 
child's  heart.  He  is  often  judged  by  it,  but  judges 
not  that  pure,  infinite,  mysterious  depth.  And  so 
should  it  be,  as  far  as  possible,  with  every  human 
spirit.  Why  should  we  be  asked  to  try  it  with  our 
measuring-lines  ?  to  say  how  deep  or  how  shallow 
it  is  ?  Why  should  we  not  keep  the  privilege  of 
Hope,  which  is  so  very  near  to  Charity. 

DR.  J.   H.  THOM. 
13 


FOR  THE  MONTH  OF 
FEBRUARY 


A  ND  he  said  unto  me,  Fear  not,  Daniel;  for 

from  the  first  day  that  thou  didst  set  thine 

heart  to  understand  and  to  chasten  thyself  before 

thy  God,  thy  words  were  heard,  and  I  am  come  for 

thy  words.  — DANIEL  x.  12. 

This  kind  can  come  forth  by  nothing  but  by 
prayer  and-fasting.  —  s.  MARK  ix.  29. 

Praying  always  with  all  prayer  and  supplication 
in  the  Spirit,  and  watching  thereunto  with  all  per- 
severance and  supplication  for  all  saints. 

EPHESIANS  vi.  1 8. 

II  It  is  observable,  that  though  prayer  for  self  is 
the  first  and  plainest  of  Christian  duties,  the 
Apostles  especially  insist  on  another  kind  of  prayer: 
prayer  for  others,  for  ourselves  with  others,  for  the 
Church,  and  for  the  world,  that  it  may  be  brought 
into  the  Church.  Intercession  is  the  characteristic 
of  Christian  worship,  the  privilege  of  the  heavenly 
adoption,  the  exercise  of  the  perfect  and  spiritual 
mind.  .  .  .  Why  should  we  be  unwilling  to  admit 


FEBRUARY 

what  it  is  so  great  a  consolation  to  know  ?  Surely 
Christ  did  not  die  for  any  common  end,  but  in  order 
to  exalt  man,  who  was  of  the  dust  of  the  field,  into 
"heavenly  places."  .  .  .  He  died  to  bestow  upon 
him  that  privilege  which  implies  or  involves  all 
others,  and  brings  him  into  nearest  resemblance  to 
Himself,  —  the  privilege  of  intercession. 

CARDINAL   NEWMAN. 

i\i  Place  yourselves  in  the  presence  of  Christ,  and 
without  fatiguing  the  understanding  converse 
with  Him,  and  in  Him  rejoice,  without  wearying 
yourselves  in  searching  out  reasons  ;  for  there  is  no 
soul  so  great  a  giant  on  this  road,  but  has  frequent 
need  to  turn  back  and  be  again  an  infant  at  the 
breast.  .  .  .  The  knowledge  of  our  sins  and  of  our 
own  selves  is  the  bread  which  we  have  to  eat  with 
all  the  meats,  however  delicate  they  may  be  in  the 
way  of  prayer.  —  s.  THERESA. 

j{j    Through  the  black  night,  and  driving  rain, 
A  ship  is  struggling  all  in  vain 
To  live  upon  the  stormy  main. 

Miserere  Domine. 

Cowering  among  his  pillows  white, 
A  child,  his  blue  eyes  dim  with  fright, 
Prays,  "  God  save  those  at  sea  to-night." 
Miserere  Domine. 

The  morning  shone  all  clear  and  gay 
On  a  ship  at  anchor  in  the  bay 
15 


FEBRUARY 

And  on  a  little  child  at  play. 

Gloria  tibi  Domine. 

A.   PROCTER. 

j)  More  things  are  wrought  by  prayer 

Than  this  world  dreams  of.     Wherefore,  let  thy 

voice 

Rise  like  a  fountain  for  me  night  and  day. 
For  what  are  men  better  than  sheep  or  goats, 
That  nourish  a  blind  life  within  the  brain, 
If,  knowing  God,  they  lift  not  hands  of  prayer 
Both  for  themselves  and  those  who  call  them  friend  ? 
For  so  the  whole  round  earth  is  every  way 
Bound  by  gold  chains  about  the  feet  of  God. 

TENNYSON. 

f)l  Never  forget,  when  you  begin  to  pray,  that  you 
are  entering  God's  Presence,  for  two  main  rea- 
sons :  first,  to  pay  Him  the  honor  and  homage  due 
to  Him ;  which  may  be  rendered  without  the  utter- 
ance of  a  word  on  either  side.  .  .  .  The  second  rea- 
son which  takes  us  into  God's  Presence  is,  that  we 
may  talk  with  Him,  and  hear  Him  speaking  within 
our  hearts  by  His  Gracious  Inspirations.  This  is 
usually  a  most  intense  enjoyment ;  it  is  a  great  privi- 
lege to  speak  familiarly  with  our  Dear  Lord,  and 
when  He  speaks  to  us,  He  sheds  an  abundance  of 
His  precious  balm  and  sweetness  upon  the  soul.  If 
we  are  able  to  speak  to  our  Lord,  let  us  do  so,  — 
let  us  praise,  pray,  and  hearken ;  if  our  utterance  is 
hindered,  let  us,  nevertheless,  remain  bowed  down 
before  Him;  He  will  behold  us;  He  will  accept 
16 


FEBRUARY 

our  patient  waiting,  and  look  graciously  upon  our 
silence  ;  it  may  be  He  will  amaze  us  by  leading  us 
by  the  hand  and  bringing  us  into  His  realm  of 
prayer.  —  s.  FRANCIS  DE  SALES. 

foil    O  dull  of  heart !  enclosed  doth  lie 

In  each  "  Come  Lord  "  an  "  Here  am  I." 
Thy  love,  thy  longing  are  not  thine, 
Reflections  of  a  love  divine : 
Thy  very  prayer  to  thee  was  given, 
Itself  a  messenger  from  Heaven. 

ARCHBP.  TRENCH. 


Seating  t&e  Cross 

Whosoever  will  come  after  me,  let  him  deny 
himself,   and  take  up  his  cross,  and  follow 
me.  —  s.  MARK  viii.  34. 

He  that  loveth  father  or  mother  more  than  me  is 
not  worthy  of  me.  —  s.  MATTHEW  x.  37. 

l£  And  there  is  meaning  in  Christ's  words.  What- 
ever misuse  may  have  been  made  of  them  — 
whatever  false  prophets  —  and  Heaven  knows  there 
have  been  many  —  have  called  the  young  children 
to  them  not  to  bless,  but  to  curse,  the  assured  fact 
remains,  that  if  you  will  obey  God,  there  will  come 
a  moment  when  the  voice  of  man  will  be  raised, 
with  all  its  holiest  natural  authority,  against  you. 
The  friend  and  the  wise  adviser —  the  brother  and 
the  sister  —  the  father  and  the  master  —  the  entire 
17 


FEBRUARY 

voice  of  your  prudent  and  keen-sighted  acquaint- 
ance —  the  entire  weight  of  the  scornful  stupidity 
of  the  vulgar  world  —  for  once,  they  will  be  against 
you  all  at  one.  You  have  to  obey  God  rather  than 
man.  The  human  race,  with  all  its  wisdom  and 
love,  all  its  indignation  and  folly,  on  one  side ; 
God  alone  on  the  other.  You  have  to  choose. 

RUSKIN. 

£  The  man  who  gives  himself  to  other  men  can 
never  be  a  wholly  sad  man ;  but  no  more  can 
he  be  a  man  of  unclouded  gladness.  To  him  shall 
come  with  every  consecration  a  before  untasted  joy, 
but  in  the  same  cup  shall  be  mixed  a  sorrow  that  it 
was  beyond  his  power  to  feel  before.  They  who 
long  to  sit  with  Jesus  on  His  throne  may  sit  there 
if  the  Father  sees  them  pure  and  worthy,  but  they 
must  be  baptized  with  the  baptism  that  He  is  bap- 
tized with.  All  truly  consecrated  men  learn  little 
by  little  that  what  they  are  consecrated  to  is  not 
joy  or  sorrow,  but  a  divine  idea  and  a  profound 
obedience,  which  can  find  their  full  outward  expres- 
sion, not  in  joy,  and  not  in  sorrow,  but  in  the  mys- 
terious and  inseparable  mingling  of  the  two. 

BISHOP  BROOKS. 

PI  Dispose  and  order  all  things  according  to  thy 
will  and  judgment ;  yet  thou  shalt  ever  find  that 
of  necessity  thou  must  suffer  somewhat,  either  will- 
ingly or  against  thy  will,  and  so  thou  shalt  ever  find 
the  Cross. 

18 


FEBRUARY 

For  either  thou  shalt  feel  pain  in  thy  body,  or  in 
thy  soul  thou  shalt  suffer  tribulation  of  spirit. 

A  KEMPIS. 

£U  Joan  of  Arc  wept  when  the  saints  and  angels 
left  her.  However  beautiful  and  glorious  her 
visions  were,  her  life  from  that  time  had  changed. 
She  who  had  heard  till  then  only  one  voice,  that  of 
her  mother,  of  which  her  own  was  the  echo,  heard 
now  the  powerful  voice  of  angels.  And  what  did 
the  celestial  voice  wish  ?  That  she  should  leave 
that  mother,  that  quiet  home.  She  must  quit  for 
the  world,  for  war,  that  little  garden  under  the 
shadow  of  the  church  where  she  heard  only  its  mu- 
sical bells,  and  where  the  birds  ate  from  her  hand. 
The  two  authorities,  earthly  and  heavenly,  com- 
manded different  things.  One  or  the  other  she 
must  disobey.  This  was  without  doubt  her  greatest 
struggle.  Those  she  maintained  against  the  Eng- 
lish were  child's  play  in  comparison.  —  MICHELET. 

fill  Particular  devotion  to  God's  service  infallibly 
entails  contradiction,  calumny,  injustice,  and 
various  trials  from  creatures  ;  and  that  not  only 
from  the  wicked,  but  even  from  the  virtuous,  or,  at 
least,  those  reputed  such.  —  JEAN  NICHOLAS  GROU. 

pljj     Thus  everywhere  we  find  our  suffering  God, 

And  where  He  trod 
May  set  our  steps  :  the  Cross  on  Calvary 

Uplifted  high 
19 


FEBRUARY 

Beams  on  the  martyr  host,  a  beacon  light 
In  open  fight. 

Mortal,  if  life  smile  on  thee,  and  thou  find 

All  to  thy  mind, 
Think,  who  did  once  from  Heaven  to  Hell  descend 

Thee  to  befriend  : 
So,  shalt  thou  dare  forego  at  His  dear  call, 

Thy  best,  thine  all. 

J.  KEBLE. 

Simplicity 

yjj     Let  thine  eyes  look  right  on,  and  let  thine  eye- 
lids look  straight  before  thee. 

PROVERBS  IV.  25. 

The  Lord  preserveth  the  simple. 

PSALM  cxvi.  6. 

£tjt  By  two  wings  a  man  is  lifted  up  from  things 
earthly;  namely,  by  Simplicity  and  Purity. 
Simplicity  ought  to  be  in  our  intention,  Purity  in 
our  affection.  Simplicity  doth  tend  toward  God ; 
Purity  doth  apprehend  and,  as  it  were,  taste  Him. 
There  is  no  creature  so  poor  and  abject,  that  it 
representeth  not  the  goodness  of  God.  If  thou 
wert  inwardly  good  and  pure,  then  wouldst  thou  be 
able  to  see  and  understand  all  things  well  without 
impediment. 
A  pure  heart  penetrateth  Heaven  and  Hell. 

A  KEMPIS. 
20 


FEBRUARY 

tfott  Unfortunately,  untruthfulness  is  the  com- 
monest of  all  miseries.  It  is  as  universal  as 
the  consequences  of  the  fall.  A  truthful  man  is  the 
rarest  of  all  phenomena.  Perhaps  hardly  any  of 
us  have  ever  seen  one.  Thorough  truthfulness 
is  undoubtedly  the  most  infrequent  of  all  graces. 
The  grace  of  terrific  austerities  and  bodily  macera- 
tions which  has  characterized  some  of  the  saints, 
the  grace  to  love  suffering,  the  grace  of  ecstasy,  the 
grace  of  martyrdom  —  all  these  are  commoner  graces 
than  that  of  thorough  truthfulness.  —  FABER. 

Not  his  the  golden  pen's  or  lip's  persuasion, 

But  a  fine  sense  of  right, 
And  Truth's  directness,  meeting  each  occasion 
Straight  as  a  line  of  light. 

His  faith  and  works,  like  streams  that  intermingle, 

In  the  same  channel  ran : 
The  crystal  clearness  of  an  eye  kept  single 

Shamed  all  the  frauds  of  man. 

WHITTIER. 

£|£    For  never  anything  can  be  amiss 

When  simpleness  and  duty  tender  it. 

SHAKESPEARE. 

fP  Tell  the  dear  Marie  to  speak  freely  of  God 
wherever  she  thinks  it  will  be  useful,  regardless 
of  what  those  who  listen  may  think  or  say  of  her. 
In  a  word,  I  have  already  told  her  that  while  we 
ought  neither  to  do  nor  say  anything  in  order  to 

21 


FEBRUARY 

obtain  praise,  no  more  ought  we  to  leave  anything 
undone  or  unsaid  because  we  may  be  praised  for 
it.  Nor  is  it  hypocritical  to  act  less  perfectly  than 
we  talk ;  of  a  truth,  were  it  so,  we  should  all  be  in 
a  bad  plight.  In  that  case  I  must  be  silent  for 
fear  of  being  a  hypocrite,  since  if  I  speak  concern- 
ing perfection  it  follows  that  I  count  myself 
perfect.  ...  It  is  not  good  to  be  so  punctilious, 
nor  to  distract  oneself  with  so  many  little  questions 
which  do  not  concern  the  things  of  our  Lord. 
Tell  her  to  go  on  sincerely,  holding  fast  to  simplicity 
and  humility,  and  to  cast  aside  all  these  subtleties 
and  perplexities.  —  s.  FRANCIS  DE  SALES. 

ffil  Simplicity  is  an  uprightness  of  soul  which 
checks  all  useless  dwelling  upon  one's  self  and 
one's  actions.  It  is  different  from  sincerity,  which 
is  a  much  lower  virtue.  We  see  many  people  who 
are  sincere  without  being  simple ;  they  are  always 
thinking  about  themselves,  weighing  all  their  words 
and  thoughts.  .  .  .  Dwelling  too  much  upon  self 
produces  in  weak  minds  useless  scruples  and  su- 
perstition, and  in  stronger  minds  a  presumptuous 
wisdom  which  is  incompatible  with  the  spirit  of 
God.  Both  are  contrary  to  true  simplicity,  which 
is  free  and  direct,  and  gives  itself  up  to  God  with- 
out reserve,  and  with  a  generous  self-forgetfulness. 
How  free,  how  intrepid  are  the  motions,  how 
glorious  the  progress,  that  the  soul  makes  when 
delivered  from  all  low  and  interested  and  unquiet 
cares !  —  FENELON. 

22 


FEBRUARY 


Juc^ge  not,  that  ye  be  not  judged. 

S.   MATTHEW   vii.  I. 

Who  art  thou  that  judgest  another  man's  servant  ? 
to  his  own  master  he  standeth  or  falleth. 

ROMANS  xiv.  4. 

We  see  only  a  part  of  each  other,  but  God 
sees  all.  Our  partial  view  is,  if  not  mingled 
with  untruth,  yet  misleading,  because  imperfect; 
we  only  know  half  the  riddle,  and  we  are  led  astray 
in  guessing  at  the  rest.  "  But  all  things  are  naked 
and  opened  unto  the  eyes  of  Him  with  whom  we 
have  to  do."  —  CARDINAL  MANNING. 

Even  if  the  justice  of  an  unfavorable  judg- 
ment was  absolutely  certain,  one  might  sup- 
pose that  all  earnest  and  gentle  natures,  under  no 
necessity  of  duty,  would  recoil  from  giving  it  form, 
from  lodging  it  in  the  minds  of  others,  from  shaping 
a  bad  reputation  for  another  with  their  own  lips, 
and  giving  it  currency  with  the  intent  of  their  hearts. 
But  when  we  reflect  on  the  uncertainty  of  all  such 
judgments,  on  the  profound  mystery  that  attaches 
to  every  man,  on  the  hidden  depths,  the  latent  work- 
ings, the  possibilities  unknown  of  every  human 
spirit,  the  presumption  that  volunteers  a  judgment, 
as  though  that  solemn  and  inscrutable  nature  was 
a  mere  transparency,  ought  to  repel  and  shock  us, 
as  partaking  of  profaneness  and  impiety. 

DR.  J.  H.  THOM. 
23 


FEBRUARY 

]££JJ     O  God,  whose  thoughts  are  brightest  light, 

Whose  love  always  runs  clear, 
To  whose  kind  wisdom  sinning  souls 
Amidst  their  sins  are  dear, 

Thou  art  the  Unapproached,  whose  height 
Enables  Thee  to  stoop, 
Whose  holiness  bends  undefiled 
To  handle  hearts  that  droop. 

When  we  ourselves  least  kindly  are, 
We  deem  the  world  unkind  ; 
Dark  hearts,  in  flowers  where  honey  lies, 
Only  the  poison  find. 

FABER. 

Jtpfoi    The  way  of  God,  who  does  all  things  gently, 
is  to  put  religion  into  the  mind  by  reason, 
and  into  the  heart  by  grace.  .  .  .  Begin  by  pitying 
the  unbeliever ;  he  is  already  wretched  enough. 

PASCAL. 

J#fatt    Judge  not ;  the  workings  of  his  brain 

And  of  his  heart  thou  canst  not  see. 
What  looks  to  thy  dim  eyes  a  stain, 
In  God's  pure  light  may  only  be 
A  scar,  brought  from  some  well-won  field 
Where  thou  wouldst  only  faint  and  yield. 

The  look,  the  air  that  frets  thy  sight 
May  be  a  token,  that  below 
The  soul  has  closed  in  deadly  fight 
24 


FEBRUARY 

With  some  infernal,  fiery  foe, 

Whose  glance  would  scorch  thy  smiling  grace 

And  cast  thee  shuddering  on  thy  face. 

A.   PROCTER. 

FPtUti  Probably  the  majority  of  repentances  have 
begun  in  the  reception  of  acts  of  kindness, 
which,  if  not  unexpected,  touched  men  by  the  sense 
of  their  being  so  undeserved.  .  .  .  Doubtless  the 
terrors  of  the  Lord  are  often  the  beginning  of  that 
wisdom  which  we  name  conversion  ;  but  men  must 
be  frightened  in  a  kind  way,  or  the  fright  will  only 
make  them  unbelievers.  Kindness  has  converted 
more  sinners  than  either  zeal  or  eloquence  or  learn- 
ing ;  and  these  last  three  have  never  converted  any 
one,  unless  they  were  kind  also.  ...  A  kind  act 
has  picked  up  many  a  fallen  man  who  has  after- 
wards slain  his  tens  of  thousands  for  his  Lord,  and 
has  entered  the  Heavenly  City  at  last  as  a  con- 
queror, amidst  the  acclamations  of  the  saints,  and 
with  the  welcome  of  his  Sovereign.  —  FABER. 

Wif    Some  purest  water  still  the  wine  may  hold. 

Is  there  no  hope  for  her  —  no  power  to  save  ? 
Yea,  once  again  to  draw  up  from  the  clay 
The  fallen  dewdrop  till  it  shine  above 
Or  save  a  fallen  soul  needs  but  one  ray 
Of  Heaven's  sunshine  or  of  human  love. 

VICTOR  HUGO. 

25 


FOR  THE  MONTH  OF 
MARCH 


GSEarfate 

TXT'E  were  troubled  on  every  side  ;  without  were 
fightings,  within  were  fears. 

II  CORINTHIANS  vii.  5. 

Fight  the  good  fight  of  faith.  —  i  TIMOTHY  vi.  12. 
I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have  finished  my 
course,  I  have  kept  the  faith.  — 11  TIMOTHY  iv.  7. 

li  Dear  to  us  are  those  who  love  us ;  the  swift 
moments  we  spend  with  them  are  a  compensa- 
tion for  a  great  deal  of  misery;  —  but  dearer  are 
those  who  reject  us  as  unworthy,  for  they  add  an- 
other life :  they  build  a  heaven  before  us  whereof 
we  had  not  dreamed,  and  thereby  supply  to  us  new 
powers  out  of  the  recesses  of  the  spirit,  and  urge 
us  to  new  and  unattempted  performances. 

EMERSON. 

Ill    Let  us  alone.    What  pleasure  can  we  have 

To  war  with  evil  ?    Is  there  any  peace 
In  ever  climbing  up  the  climbing  wave  ? 
26 


MARCH 

All  things  have  rest,  and  ripen  toward  the  grave, 
In  silence  ripen,  fall  and  cease : 
Give  us  long  rest  or  death,  dark  death  or  dreamful 
ease !  TENNYSON. 

ft)     Does  the  road  wind  up  hill  all  the  way  ? 

Yes,  to  the  very  end. 

Will  the  day's  journey  take  the  whole  long  day  ? 
From  morn  to  night ',  my  friend. 

But  is  there  for  the  night  a  resting-place  ? 

A  roof  for  when  the  slow  dark  hours  begin  ? 
May  not  the  darkness  hide  it  from  my  face  ? 

You  cannot  miss  that  inn. 

Shall  I  meet  other  wayfarers  at  night  ? 

Those  who  have  gone  before. 
Then  must  I  knock  or  call  when  just  in  sight  ? 

They  will  not  keep  you  standing  at  that  door. 

Shall  I  find  comfort,  travel-sore  and  weak  ? 

Of  labor  you  shall  find  the  sum. 
Will  there  be  beds  for  me  and  all  who  seek  ? 

Yea,  beds  for  all  who  come. 

CHRISTINA  ROSSETTI. 

|)    There  are,  it  may  be,  some  men  so  constituted 
that  they  turn  naturally  to  the  right  course  ; 
they  take   intuitively  the  healthy  view  of  circum- 
stance ;    God's   Spirit   finds   so  little  resistance  in 
their  nature  that  they  take  it  for  their  own ;  their 
spontaneous  affections  are  in  unconscious  harmony 
27 


MARCH 

with  the  ulterior  designs  of  His  Providence.  But 
these  are  the  exceptions,  and  rather  good  than  great, 
rather  saints  than  heroes.  Most  men  accomplish 
the  "  end  for  which  they  were  born,  the  cause  for 
which  they  came  into  the  world,"  not  by  their  spon- 
taneous affections,  but  by  the  high  strain  of  Con- 
science by  calling  in  the  force  of  Principle  and 
Will :  God's  Spirit  strives  with  theirs :  only  through 
deliberate  resolve  do  they  choose  the  higher  guid- 
ance: only  through  daily  self-denial  do  they  re- 
press the  encroachments  of  the  lower  nature  :  they 
have  passions  and  self-love  which  would  interrupt 
the  calm  flow  of  progressive  life,  and  break  its  unity 
into  aimless  sloth,  tumults  and  wanderings :  their 
members  are  not  by  nature  instruments  of  right- 
eousness :  only,  as  our  Lord  said,  by  plucking  out 
the  right  eye,  by  cutting  off  the  right  hand,  can  they 
prepare  themselves  for  God's  service. 

DR.  J.  H.  THOM. 

fol    So  long  as  we  live  in  this  world  we  cannot  be 

without  tribulation  and  temptation. 
The  beginning  of  all  evil  temptations  is  incon- 
stancy of  mind  and  small  confidence  in  God. 

We  know  not  oftentimes  what  we  are  able  to  do, 
but  temptations  do  show  us  what  we  are. 

A  KEMPIS. 

foil    The  captive's  oar  may  pause  upon  the  galley, 

The  soldier  sleep  beneath  his  plumed  crest, 
And  Peace  may  fold  her  wing  o'er  hill  and  valley, 
But  thou,  O  Christian !  must  not  take  thy  rest. 
28 


MARCH 

Thou  must  walk  on,  however  man  upbraid  thee, 
With  Him  who  trod  the  wine-press  all  alone ; 

Thou  wilt  not  find  one  human  hand  to  aid  thee, 
One  human  soul  to  comprehend  thine  own. 

ANONYMOUS. 

C&e  SSStratJ)  of  JHan 

folll     For  wrath  killeth  the  foolish  man,  and  envy 

slayeth  the  silly  one.  —  JOB  v.  2. 
For  the  wrath  of  man  worketh  not  the  righteous- 
ness of  God.  —  s.  JAMES  i.  20. 

l£      First,  keep   thyself  in  peace,  and  then  shalt 

thou  be  able  to  pacify  others. 
A  passionate  man  turneth  even  good  into  evil, 
and  easily  believeth  the  worst. 
A  good,  peaceable  man  turneth  all  things  to  good. 

X  KEMPIS. 

P  The  state  of  the  man  was  murderous  and  he 
knew  it.  More,  he  irritated  it,  with  a  kind  of 
perverse  pleasure  akin  to  that  which  a  sick  man 
sometimes  has  in  irritating  a  wound  upon  his  body. 
.  .  .  Under  his  daily  restraint,  it  was  his  compensa- 
tion, not  his  trouble,  to  give  a  glance  towards  his 
state  at  night,  and  to  the  freedom  of  its  being  in- 
dulged. If  great  criminals  told  the  truth,  —  which, 
being  great  criminals,  they  do  not,  —  they  would  very 
rarely  tell  of  their  struggles  against  the  crime.  Their 
struggles  are  towards  it.  They  buffet  with  oppos- 
ing waves,  to  gain  the  bloody  shore,  not  to  recede 
from  it.  —  DICKENS. 

29 


MARCH 

$i    Take  the  cloak  from  his  face,  and  at  first 
Let  the  corpse  do  its  worst. 

How  he  lies  in  his  rights  of  a  man  ! 

Death  has  done  all  death  can. 
And  absorbed  in  the  new  life  he  leads, 

He  recks  not,  he  heeds 
Nor  his  wrong  nor  my  vengeance  —  both  strike 

On  his  senses  alike, 
And  are  lost  in  the  solemn  and  strange 

Surprise  of  the  change. 

Ha,  what  avails  death  to  erase 

His  offence,  my  disgrace  ? 
I  would  we  were  boys  as  of  old 

In  the  field  by  the  fold  — 
His  outrage,  God's  patience,  man's  scorn 

Were  so  easily  borne. 

I  stand  here  now,  he  lies  in  his  place  — 

Cover  the  face.  BROWNING. 

yii  Such  blind  hate 

Is  fit  for  beasts  of  prey,  but  not  for  men. 
Love  comes  to  cancel  all  ancestral  hate, 
Subdues  all  heritage,  proves  that  in  mankind 
Union  is  deeper  than  division. 

GEORGE  ELIOT. 

fill    My  brain  goes  this  way  and  that  way  ;  't  will 
not  fix  on  aught  but  vengeance. 

DUG  DE  GUISE. 
30 


MARCH 

Quench  thou  the  fires  of  hate  and  strife, 
The  wasting  fever  of  the  heart, 
From  perils  guard  our  feeble  life, 
And  to  our  souls  Thy  peace  impart. 

BREVIARY. 


lobe  for  f  nfctotimate 

fjj     Fear  not  :  for  I  have  redeemed  thee,  I  have 
called  thee  by  thy  name  ;  thou  art  mine. 

ISAIAH  xliii.  i. 

The  eternal  God  is  thy  refuge,  and  underneath 
are  the  everlasting  arms. 

DEUTERONOMY  XXXlii.  27. 

yjjj  The  love  of  Jesus  Christ  embraced  every  in- 
dividual of  the  human  race,  each  occupying 
a  distinct  place  in  His  Divine  Heart,  and  that 
Heart  was  infinite  in  capacity  ;  it  contained  ample 
room  for  all,  its  tenderness  for  one  never  encroach- 
ing on  its  affection  for  another.  Every  Christian 
may  appropriate  the  Heart  of  Jesus  Christ  as  if  its 
love  had  been  centred  in  Him  alone,  and  say  with 
St.  Paul,  "He  loved  me,  and  delivered  himself 
for  me"  Thus  each  mortal  participates  as  abun- 
dantly in  the  benign  influence  of  the  sun  as  if  his 
invigorating  rays  were  shed  on  one  alone. 

JEAN  NICHOLAS  GROU. 


Yes,  for  me,  for  me,  He  careth 
With  a  father's  tender  care  ; 
3i 


MARCH 

Yes,  with  me,  with  me,  He  shareth 
Every  burden,  every  fear. 
Yes,  o'er  me,  o'er  me,  He  watcheth, 
Ceaseless,  watcheth  night  and  day ; 

Yes,  even  me,  even  me,  He  snatcheth 

From  the  perils  of  the  way. 

Yes,  in  me,  in  me,  He  dwelleth  ; 
I  in  Him,  and  He  in  me ; 
And  my  empty  soul  He  filleth 
Here  and  through  eternity. 

H.  BONAR. 

Jtti  Men  of  keen  hearts  would  be  overpowered 
by  despondency,  and  would  even  loathe  exist- 
ence, did  they  suppose  themselves  under  the  mere 
operation  of  fixed  laws,  powerless  to  excite  the  pity 
or  the  attention  of  Him  who  has  appointed  them. 
What  should  they  do,  especially,  who  are  cast 
among  persons  unable  to  enter  into  their  feelings, 
and  thus  strangers  to  them  ;  or  who  have  perplexi- 
ties of  mind  they  cannot  explain  ^o  themselves, 
much  less  remove,  and  no  one  to  help  them  ;  or  who 
have  affections  and  aspirations  pent  up  within  them, 
because  they  have  not  met  with  objects  to  which  to 
devote  them ;  or  who  are  misunderstood  by  those 
around  them,  and  find  they  have  no  words  to  set 
themselves  right  with  them  ;  or  who  seem  to  them- 
selves to  be  without  place  or  purpose  in  the  world, 
or  to  be  in  the  way  of  others ;  or  who  have  the  bur- 
den of  some  painful  secret,  or  of  some  incommuni- 
32 


MARCH 

cable  solitary  grief!  In  all  such  cases  the  Gospel 
narrative  supplies  our  very  need,  not  simply  present- 
ing to  us  an  unchangeable  Creator  to  rely  upon, 
but  a  compassionate  Guardian;  a  discriminating 
Judge  and  Helper.  —  CARDINAL  NEWMAN. 

jtlf  Most  assuredly  no  one  loves  your  soul  half  so 
much  as  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  He  is  All- 
Powerful  to  help  you.  No  one  else  can  help  you,  save 
through  Him,  but  He  can  help  you  alone.  He  will 
not  fail  to  bear  the  heaviest  weight  of  your  trouble, 
and  to  draw  you  gently  to  Him.  Picture  Him  as 
stretching  out  His  arms  to  you,  offering  you  His 
Help,  calling  you  to  hold  converse  with  Him  ;  and 
longing,  far  beyond  anything  you  can  imagine,  that 
you  should  dwell  in  Him  and  He  in  you.  All  the 
evil  we  do  not  commit,  all  the  temptations  to  which 
we  do  not  consent,  or  which  never  visit  us,  all  our 
holy  thoughts  and  good  intentions,  all  our  long- 
ings after  that  which  is  right,  are  so  many  witnesses 
of  His  Loving  Kindness  towards  us  ;  for  faith 
teaches  us  that  without  Him  we  can  do  nothing. 
How  could  He  help  you  thus  unless  He  cared  for 

yOU  ?  —  PERE  DE   CONDREN. 

P£     In  the  joy  of  the  Resurrection  we  shall  see  the 

countenance  of  the  Friend  who  has  loved  us, 

sorrowed  for  us,  died  for  us ;  the  countenance  of 

the  Son  of  God  fixed  upon  each  one  of  us  ;  the  eyes 

of  our  Redeemer  looking  upon  us  personally  one 

by  one ;  His  voice  speaking  to  us  as  He  spoke  to 

33 


MARCH 

Mary  at  the  sepulchre,   calling  us   each  one  by 
name.     This  is  the  beginning  of  the  joy. 

CARDINAL   MANNING. 

yfii    Alone,  no  !  God  hath  been  there  long  before, 
Eternally  hath  waited  on  that  shore 

For  us  who  were  to  come 

To  our  eternal  home ; 
And  He  hath  taught  His  angels  to  prepare 
In  what  way  we  are  to  be  welcomed  there. 

Like  one  that  waits  and  watches  He  hath  sate 
As  if  there  were  none  else  for  whom  to  wait, 

Waiting  for  us,  for  us, 

Who  keep  Him  waiting  thus, 
And  who  bring  less  to  satisfy  His  love 
Than  any  other  of  the  souls  above. 

FABER. 


SSRoman. 


A  virtuous  woman  is  a  crown  to  her  husband. 

PROVERBS  xii.  4. 
The  Lord  is  with  thee  :  blessed  art  thou  among 
women.  —  s.  LUKE  i.  28. 

God  sent  forth  his  Son,  made  of  a  woman,  made 
under  the  law.  —  GALATIANS  iv.  4. 

And  there  appeared  a  great  wonder  in  heaven  ;  a 
woman  clothed  with  the  sun,  and  the  moon  under 
her  feet,  and  upon  her  head  a  crown  of  twelve  stars. 

REVELATION  xii.  I. 

34 


MARCH 

In  one  of  the  most  rich  and  beautiful  of 
European  galleries  hangs  Raphael's  greatest 
Madonna,  called  the  Madonna  of  St.  Sixtus. 
Among  the  dreary  sands  at  the  edge  of  the  Egyp- 
tian desert,  under  the  shadow  of  the  Pyramids, 
stands  the  mighty  Sphinx,  the  work  of  unknown 
hands,  so  calm  and  so  eternal  in  its  solitude  that  it 
is  hard  to  think  of  it  as  the  work  of  human  hands 
at  all.  These  two  suggest  comparisons  which  are 
certainly  not  fancies.  They  are  the  two  great  ex- 
pressions, in  art,  of  the  two  religions  —  the  religion 
of  the  East  and  of  the  West.  Fatalism  and  Provi- 
dence they  seem  to  mean.  Both  have  tried  to 
express  a  union  of  humanity  with  something  which 
is  its  superior;  but  one  has  joined  it  only  to  the 
superior  strength  of  the  animal,  while  the  other  has 
filled  it  with  the  superior  spirituality  of  a  divine 
nature.  The  Sphinx  has  life  in  its  human  face 
written  into  a  riddle,  a  puzzle,  a  mocking  bewilder- 
ment. The  Virgin's  face  is  full  of  a  mystery  we  can- 
not fathom,  but  it  unfolds  to  us  a  thousand  of  the 
mysteries  of  life.  It  does  not  mock,  but  blesses 
us.  The  Sphinx  oppresses  us  with  colossal  size. 
The  Virgin  is  not  a  distortion  or  exaggeration,  but 
a  glorification  of  humanity.  The  Egyptian  monster 
is  alone  amid  its  sands,  to  be  worshipped,  not  loved. 
The  Christian  woman  has  her  child  clasped  in  her 
arms,  enters  into  the  societies  and  sympathies  of 
men,  and  claims  no  worship  except  love. 

BISHOP   BROOKS. 

35 


MARCH 

In  all  the  history  of  the  past,  through  all 
man's  experience,  we  have  seen  the  Crea- 
tive Principle  made  operative  through  that  reflected 
glory,  Queen  of  Heaven,  the  feminine  attribute 
of  Love;  the  gentle  power  of  Beauty  leading  us 
always  upward  towards  the  perfect  Light.  This 
has  ever  been  the  element  which  has  lifted  us  out 
of  the  night  and  death  of  selfishness  into  the  glo- 
rious light  of  day,  making  us  co-creators  with  the 
Creator,  till,  in  giving  ourselves  to  His  purposes, 
we  at  last  find  our  long-sought  Happiness.  Through- 
out all  human  story  we  have  seen  this  principle  in- 
carnated for  us  and  manifested  in  Woman.  Here, 
then,  is  the  true  Heroine  of  our  Drama  of  Exist- 
ence, which  closes  with  this  as  the  final  word  of 
life:  — 

"  The  Eternal,  the  Womanly, 

Lifts,  leads  us  on." 
GOETHE'S  KEY  TO  FAUST,  BY  w.  P.  ANDREWS. 

j^jj  There  is  not  a  war  in  the  world,  no,  nor  an 
injustice,  but  you  women  are  answerable  for 
it ;  not  in  that  you  have  provoked,  but  in  that  you 
have  not  hindered.  There  is  no  suffering,  no  in- 
justice, no  misery  in  the  earth,  but  the  guilt  of  it 
lies  with  you.  Men  can  bear  the  sight  of  it,  but 
you  should  not  be  able  to  bear  it.  ...  Have  you 
ever  considered  what  a  deep  undermeaning  there 
lies,  or  at  least  may  be  read,  if  we  choose,  in  our 
custom  of  strewing  flowers  before  those  whom  we 
think  most  happy  ?  The  path  of  a  good  woman  is 

36 


MARCH 

indeed  strewn  with  flowers,  but  they  rise  behind 
her  steps,  not  before  them.  .  .  .  Far  away  among 
the  moorlands  and  the  rocks,  far  in  the  darkness  of 
the  terrible  streets,  these  feeble  florets  are  lying, 
with  all  their  fresh  leaves  torn  and  their  stems 
broken.  Will  you  never  go  down  to  them  nor  set 
them  in  order  in  their  little  fragrant  beds,  nor  fence 
them,  in  their  trembling,  from  the  fierce  wind  ? 
Shall  morning  follow  morning  for  you  but  not  for 
them?  ...  Oh,  you  queens,  you  queens,  among 
the  hills  and  happy  greenwood  of  this  land  of  yours, 
shall  the  foxes  have  holes,  and  the  birds  of  the  air 
have  nests  ;  and  in  your  cities  shall  the  stones  cry 
out  against  you,  that  they  are  the  only  pillows 
where  the  Son  of  Man  can  lay  His  head  ? 

RUSKIN. 

The  role  of  Christian  women  was  some- 
thing similar  to  that  of  the  guardian  an- 
gels —  they  might  lead  the  world,  but  while  remain- 
ing invisible  themselves.  It  is  very  seldom  that 
angels  become  visible  in  the  hour  of  supreme  danger, 
as  the  Angel  Raphael  did  to  Tobit ;  so  is  it  only  at 
certain  moments  long  foreseen,  that  the  empire  of 
woman  becomes  visible,  and  that  we  behold  these 
angels,  who  were  the  saviors  of  Christian  society, 
manifesting  themselves  under  the  names  of  Blanche 
of  Castille  and  Joan  of  Arc.  —  F.  OZANAM. 

jflrtJU     I*1  tne  First   Epistle  to  the   Corinthians, 
St.  Paul  speaks  of  the  glory  of  the  woman 
as  of  a  thing  distinct  from  the  glory  of  the  man. 
37 


MARCH 

Their  endowments  are  unlike  ;  their  work  is  differ- 
ent; their  provinces  are  separate.  If  she  ape  the 
man  she  will  lose  the  half  of  love,  and  yet  not  gain 
the  commanding  mind.  .  .  .  To  live  in  the  hearts 
of  those  who  make  the  laws  is  more  than  to  have  a 
vote.  And  if  we  must  take  a  gloomy  view,  I,  for 
one,  agree  with  Madame  de  Stael,  the  most  intel- 
lectual of  women.  "It  were  far  better,"  she  says, 
"  in  order  to  keep  something  sacred  on  earth,  that 
in  marriage  there  should  be  one  slave  rather  than 
two  free-thinkers."  —  BISHOP  SPALDING. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  in  all  religious 
systems  which,  instead  of  representing  God 
chiefly  as  moral  Lawgiver,  are  fond  of  dwell- 
ing on  Him  as  the  Holy  Spirit,  there  the  prophets 
are,  or  at  least  may  be,  women.  So  was  it  among 
the  Phrygian  Christians  of  old,  who  developed  the 
doctrine  of  the  Paraclete.  So  has  it  ever  been 
among  the  Society  of  Friends,  who  keep  silence 
till  the  Spirit  speaks.  So  is  it  when  the  Catholic 
ecstatica  attests  the  supernatural  grace  that  still 
penetrates  and  consecrates  the  organism  of  the  vis- 
ible Church.  —  DR.  JAMES  MARTINEAU. 

Seraph  of  Heaven !  too  gentle  to  be  human, 
Veiling  beneath  that  radiant  form  of  woman 

All  that  is  insupportable  in  thee 

Of  light  and  love  and  immortality. 

Sweet  Benediction  in  the  eternal  curse  ! 

Veil'd  Glory  of  this  lampless  universe  ! 

Thou  Moon  beyond  the  clouds  !    Thou  living  Form 

38 


MARCH 

Among  the  dead  !     Thou  Star  above  the  storm  ! 
Thou  Wonder  and  thou  Beauty  and  thou  Terror  ! 
Thou  Harmony  of  Nature's  art !     Thou  Mirror 
In  whom,  as  in  the  splendor  of  the  sun, 
All  shapes  look  glorious  which  thou  gazest  on ! 

SHELLEY. 

j*j£P     O  Virgin  Mother,  daughter  of  thy  Son, 

Created  beings  all  in  lowliness 
Surpassing,  as,  in  height  above  them  all ; 
Term  by  the  eternal  counsel  pre-ordained  ; 
Ennobler  of  thy  nature,  so  advanced 
In  thee  that  its  great  Maker  did  not  scorn 
To  make  Himself  His  own  creation ; 
For  in  thy  womb  rekindling  shone  the  love 
Revealed  whose  genial  influence  makes  now 
This  flower  to  germin  in  eternal  peace  ; 
Here  thou  to  us  of  charity  and  love 
Art  as  the  noonday  torch  ;  and  art  beneath 
To  mortal  men  of  hope  a  living  spring. 

DANTE. 

ffi$i    Mother  of  the  Fair  Delight 

Thou  handmaid  perfect  in  God's  sight, 

Now  sitting  fourth  beside  the  Three, 
Thyself  a  woman-Trinity  — 

Being  a  daughter  born  to  God, 

Mother  of  Christ  from  stall  to  rood, 

And  wife  unto  the  Holy  Ghost :  — 
Oh,  when  our  need  is  uppermost, 

Think  that  to  such  as  death  may  strike 

Thou  once  wert  sister  sisterlike  ! 
39 


MARCH 

Thou  headstone  of  humanity, 
Groundstone  of  the  great  Mystery, 
Fashioned  like  us,  yet  more  than  we  ! 

Ah  !  knew'st  thou  of  the  end,  when  first 
That  Babe  was  on  thy  bosom  nurs'd  ?  — 
Or  when  He  tottered  round  thy  knee 
Did  thy  great  sorrow  dawn  on  thee  ? 
And  through  His  boyhood,  year  by  year 
Eating  with  Him  the  Passover, 
Didst  thou  discern  confusedly 
That  holier  sacrament,  when  He, 
The  bitter  cup  about  to  quaff, 
Should  break  the  bread  and  eat  thereof  ? 

Soul,  is  it  Faith,  or  Love,  or  Hope, 
That  lets  me  see  her  standing  up 
Where  the  light  of  the  Throne  is  bright  ? 
Unto  the  left,  unto  the  right, 
The  cherubim,  arrayed,  conjoint, 
Float  inward  to  a  golden  point, 
And  from  between  the  seraphim 
The  glory  issues  for  a  hymn. 

DANTE  ROSSETTI. 
40 


FOR  THE  MONTH  OF 
APRIL 


T  WILL  call  them  my  people,  which  were  not  my 
people;  and  her  beloved,  which  was   not  be- 
loved. —  ROMANS  ix.  25. 

That  which  may  be  known  of  God  is  manifest  in 
them  ;  for  God  hath  shewed  it  unto  them. 

ROMANS  i.  19. 

These,  having  not  the  law,  are  a  law  unto  them- 
selves :  which  shew  the  work  of  the  law  written  in 
their  hearts,  their  conscience  also  bearing  witness, 
and  their  thoughts  the  mean  while  accusing  or  else 
excusing  one  another.  —  ROMANS  ii.  14,  15. 

H  Men  begin,  little  children  begin,  by  calling  God 
by  the  primal  name  of  Father.  It  was  a  name 
revealed  in  Paradise  ;  but  if  no  revelation  had  been 
made,  it  would  have  welled  up  from  human  con- 
sciousness like  the  waters  that  are  under  the  earth. 
In  the  vast  deserts  of  heathenism  where  the  shade 
of  death  has  lain,  and  still  lies,  the  untutored  mass 
of  the  people  have  ever  been,  and  are  still,  aware 


APRIL 

of  a  Heavenly  Father.  Amid  all  superstitions  and 
all  false  teaching,  in  spite  of  ignorance  and  degra- 
dation, may  we  not  hope  that  as  it  is  undoubtedly 
true  that  no  instance  can  be  named  where  a  people 
have  not  looked  up  to  One  above,  so  in  their  inculp- 
able  ignorance,  not  only  will  the  multitudes  escape 
condemnation,  but  many  will  even  have  elicited  by 
God's  grace  that  act  of  clinging  and  pious  love 
which  will  have  lifted  them  to  the  seats  of  the 
Blessed  ?  And  he  who  knows  God  under  the  name 
of  Father  —  can  it  be  denied  that  he  has  a  true  and 
real  knowledge  of  Him  ?  —  BISHOP  OF  NEWPORT 

AND  MENEVIA. 

Ill  We  have  been  taught  that  Christ  is  the  First 
begotten  of  God ;  that  He  is  the  Reason  of  which 
all  mankind  are  partakers  ;  and  that  those  who 
live  according  to  Reason  are  Christians.  Such 
among  the  Greeks  were  Socrates,  Heraclitus,  and 
the  like.  Whatsoever  at  any  time  the  philosophers 
or  law-givers  said  or  discovered  that  was  God,  they 
did  it  according  to  their  measure  of  Reason,  Light, 
and  Knowledge  ;  but  because  they  knew  not  Reason 
to  the  full,  which  is  Christ,  they  many  times  said 
things  contradictory  one  to  another. 

JUSTIN  MARTYR. 

A  The  soul  of  Man  is  Christian  by  Nature. 

TERTULLIAN. 

|jj    From  the  Conscience  of  the  Heathen  accusing 
or  excusing  them,  I  argue  that  there  is  some 
42 


APRIL 

other  rule  for  human  actions  besides  the  written 
Word  ;  and  that  this  rule  could  be  no  other  than  the 
Law  of  Nature,  and  of  Right  Reason,  imprinted  in 
their  hearts,  which  is  as  truly  the  Law  and  Word  of 
God  as  that  written  in  our  Bible.  The  law  of  Nature 
leads  us  to  do  actions  conformable  to  those  which 
Christianity  inspires,  for  Christianity  has  only  re- 
established and  perfected  the  law  of  Nature;  so 
that  I  am  persuaded  there  is  no  Christian  virtue 
but  the  traces  and  sentiments  thereof  may  be  found 
in  ancient  Paganism,  how  corrupt  soever  it  may 
have  been.  .  .  .  Before  the  birth  of  Christ  many 
holy  persons,  not  of  the  race  of  Abraham,  obtained 
salvation  by  the  observation  of  the  Law  of  Nature. 

BISHOP  SANDERSON. 

fj  Everywhere  throughout  the  world,  everywhere 
throughout  the  ages,  men  have  sought  holiness. 
The  best  and  noblest  men  everywhere  have  always 
been  true  seekers  after  God.  That  is  inexplicable 
if  Christianity  is  a  new  power,  a  new  gift  to  the 
faculties  of  man,  nay,  as  it  often  seems  to  be  stated, 
a  new  set  of  faculties  in  man  which  he  has  not  pos- 
sessed before.  But  how  entirely  explicable,  how 
natural  it  is,  if  what  the  Incarnation  did  was  to  re- 
deem men  into  what  was  their  original  and  unde- 
stroyed  nature  and  privilege.  —  BISHOP  BROOKS. 

Jj|    "And  I  saw  that  there  was  an  Ocean  of  Dark- 
ness and  Death :  but  an  infinite  Ocean  of  Light 
43 


APRIL 

and  Love  flowed  over  the  Ocean  of  Darkness  :  and 
that  I  saw  the  infinite  Love  of  God.7' 

GEORGE  FOX. 

foil    All  souls  that  struggle  and  aspire, 
All  hearts  of  prayer  by  thee  are  lit ; 
And,  dim  or  clear,  thy  tongues  of  fire 
On  dusky  tribes  and  twilight  centuries  sit. 

Nor  bounds,  nor  clime,  nor  creed  thou  know'st, 

Wide  as  our  need  thy  favors  fall ; 

The  white  wings  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
Stoop,  seen  or  unseen,  o'er  the  heads  of  all. 

WHITTIER. 

<Stief  for  t&e  Loss  of  ©ne 

folll  The  soul  of  Jonathan  was  knit  with  the  soul 
of  David,  and  Jonathan  loved  him  as  his 
own  soul.  —  I  SAMUEL  xviii.  i. 

Now  Jesus  loved  Martha,  and  her  sister,  and 
Lazarus.  —  s.  JOHN  ii.  5. 

Now  there  was  leaning  on  Jesus'  bosom  one  of 
his  disciples,  whom  Jesus  loved.  —  s.  JOHN  xiii.  23. 

if    It  might  be  supposed  that  the  Son  of  God 
Most   High   could  not  have  loved  one  man 
more  than  another ;  or  again  if  so,  that  He  would 
not  have  had  only  one  friend,  but,  as  being  All- 
holy,  He  would  have  loved  all  men  more  or  less,  in 
proportion  to  their  holiness.    Yet  we  find  our  Sa- 
44 


APRIL 

viour  had  a  private  friend ;  and  this  shows  us  first, 
how  entirely  He  was  a  man,  as  much  as  any  of  us, 
in  His  wants  and  feelings ;  and  next,  that  there  is 
nothing  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  no- 
thing inconsistent  with  the  fulness  of  Christian 
love,  in  having  our  affections  directed  in  an  espe- 
cial way  towards  certain  objects,  towards  those 
whom  the  circumstances  of  our  past  life,  or  some 
peculiarities  of  character,  have  endeared  to  us. 

CARDINAL   NEWMAN. 

£  All  my  love 

Lies  buried  in  the  grave  —  no  mortal  wish 
Finds  place  within  this  bosom. 
I  have  no  farther  business  in  the  world 
But  to  remember  him. 

SCHI7.LER. 

£t      The   King   had  watched  with  a  heart  sore 

stirred 
For  two  whole  days,  and  this  was  the  third : 

And  still  to  all  his  court  would  he  say, 
"  What  keeps  my  son  so  long  away  ?  " 

"  Your  son  and  all  his  fellowship 

Lie  low  in  the  sea  with  the  White  Ship." 

King  Henry  fell  as  a  man  struck  dead ; 
And  speechless  still  he  stared  from  his  bed 
When  to  him  next  day  my  rede  I  read. 
45 


APRIL 

There 's  many  an  hour  must  needs  beguile 
A  King's  high  heart  that  he  should  smile,  — 

Full  many  a  lordly  hour,  full  fain 

Of  his  realm's  rule  and  pride  of  his  reign :  — 

But  this  King  never  smiled  again. 

DANTE  ROSSETTI. 

£j|  He  sat  alone, 

Hating  companionship  that  was  not  hers ; 
Felt  bruised  with  hopeless  longing ;  drank,  as  wine, 
Illusions  of  what  had  been,  would  have  been. 
It  has  been  so  with  rulers,  emperors, 
Nay,  sages  who  held  secrets  of  great  Time, 
Sharing  his  hoary  and  beneficent  life, 
Men  who  sat  throned  among  the  multitudes,  — 
They  have  sore  sickened  at  the  loss  of  one. 

GEORGE  ELIOT. 

fill    The  South- wind  brings 

Life,  sunshine,  and  desire, 
And  on  every  mount  and  meadow 
Breathes  aromatic  fire ; 
But  over  the  dead  he  has  no  power, 
The  lost,  the  lost,  he  cannot  restore ; 
And,  looking  over  the  hills,  I  mourn 
The  darling  who  shall  not  return. 

I  see  my  empty  house, 

I  see  my  trees  repair  their  boughs  ; 

And  he,  the  wondrous  child, 


APRIL 

Whose  silver  warble  wild 

Outvalued  every  pulsing  sound 

Within  the  air's  cerulean  round,  — 

The  hyacinthine  boy,  for  whom 

Morn  well  might  break  and  April  bloom,  — 

The  gracious  boy,  who  did  adorn 

The  world  whereinto  he  was  born, 

And  by  his  countenance  repay 

The  favor  of  the  loving  Day,  — 

Has  disappeared  from  the  Day's  eye; 

Far  and  wide  she  cannot  find  him ; 

My  hopes  pursue,  they  cannot  bind  him. 

EMERSON. 

jftj)     The  face,  which  duly  as  the  sun 
Rose  up  for  me  with  life  begun, 
To  mark  all  bright  hours  of  the  day 
With  daily  love,  is  dimmed  away  — 
And  yet  my  days  go  on,  go  on. 

The  heart,  which  like  a  staff,  was  one 
For  mine  to  lean  and  rest  upon, 
The  strongest  on  the  longest  day 
With  steadfast  love,  is  caught  away  — 
And  yet  my  days  go  on,  go  on. 

E.  B.  BROWNING. 


Reunion 

In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions  :  I 
go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you.     I  will   come 
47 


APRIL 

again  and  receive  you  unto  myself ;  that  where  I 
am,  there  ye  may  be  also.  Because  I  live,  ye  shall 
live  also.  —  s.  JOHN  xiv.  2,  3,  19. 

When  Christ,  who  is  our  life,  shall  appear,  then 
shall  ye  also  appear  with  him  in  glory. 

COLOSSIANS  iii.  4. 

jfyi  The  grown-up  man  feels  his  father's  life  beat- 
ing from  beyond  the  grave,  and  is  sure  that 
in  his  own  eternity  the  child  relation  to  that  life 
will  be  in  some  mysterious  and  perfect  way  re- 
sumed and  glorified ;  that  he  will  be  something  to 
that  dear  life  and  it  to  him  forever. 

BISHOP  BROOKS. 

What  is  excellent, 
As  God  lives  is  permanent ; 
Hearts  are  dust,  hearts'  loves  remain; 
Heart's  love  will  meet  thee  again. 

Silent  rushes  the  swift  Lord 
Through  ruined  systems  still  restored, 
Broadsowing,  bleak  and  void  to  bless, 
Plants  with  worlds  the  wilderness ; 
Waters  with  tears  of  ancient  sorrow 
Apples  of  Eden  ripe  to-morrow. 
House  and  tenant  go  to  ground, 
Lost  in  God,  in  Godhead  found. 

EMERSON. 

48 


APRIL 

How  amazing  will  be  to  us,  when  we  shall 
reach  that  heavenly  shore,  our  incredulity, 
our  limitations,  our  dulness,  our  failure  to  catch  at 
least  some  hints  and  foregleams  of  things  to  come  ! 
The  shadows  are  here,  the  lights  are  there.  Do 
not  reverse  the  truth,  and  talk  of  the  life  to  come 
as  if  sight  were  to  be  turned  into  faith,  not  faith 
into  sight ;  as  if  we  were  not  to  see  eye  to  eye  ;  as 
if  there  could  be  no  more  beholding  of  the  Lord 
and  no  more  leaning  upon  His  breast,  like  that 
which  is  recorded  of  the  beloved  disciple.  Believe 
in  persons,  in  forms,  in  beating  hearts,  in  the  kin- 
dling eye,  in  the  voice  of  pure  affection ;  and  that  to 
be  translated  and  transfigured  is  only  to  be  clothed 
upon  with  a  more  serviceable  and  expressive  form. 

DR.  RUFUS  ELLIS. 

J^    "Ah  !  could  thy  grave  at  home,  at  Carthage, 

be !  "— 

Care  not  for  that,  and  lay  me  where  I  fall ! 
Everywhere  heard  will  be  the  judgment  callj 
But  at  God^s  altar,  oh,  remember  me. 

Thus  Monica,  and  died  in  Italy. 
Yet  fervent  had  her  longing  been,  through  all 
Her  course,  for  home  at  last,  and  burial 
With  her  own  husband,  by  the  Libyan  sea. 

Had  been !  but  at  the  end,  to  her  pure  soul 
All  tie  with  all  beside  seem'd  vain  and  cheap, 
And  union  before  God  the  only  care. 
49 


APRIL 

Creeds  pass,  rites  change,  no  altar  standeth  whole, 
Yet  we  her  memory,  as  she  pray'd,  will  keep, 
Keep  by  this :  Life  in  God,  and  union  there  / 

MATTHEW  ARNOLD. 

)*£  My  best  beloved,  I  most  eagerly  desire  to  see 
thee,  that  on  me  may  come  the  benediction 
of  the  dying.  Perhaps  I  may  come ;  perhaps  not. 
However  this  may  be,  I  have  loved  thee  from  the 
beginning,  I  shall  love  thee  without  end.  I  may 
confidently  say  that  I  shall  never,  in  the  end,  lose 
one  so  beloved.  For  me,  he  does  not  die  ;  he  only 
goes  before,  to  whose  soul  mine  adheres  in  a  tie 
never  to  be  relaxed,  in  a  bond  not  to  be  broken. 
Only  remember  me,  when  thou  shalt  have  come 
thither,  going  before  me ;  and  may  it  be  given  to 
me  to  follow  thee  quickly,  and  to  come  again  to 
thee.  In  the  mean  time  remember  that  never  will 
the  sweet  remembrance  of  thee  depart  from  me, 
though  thy  presence  be  withdrawn  from  grieving 
hearts.  —  s.  BERNARD  OF  CLAIRVAUX. 

j^l    Alas  for  him  who  never  sees 

The  stars  shine  through  his  cypress-trees, 
Who,  hopeless,  lays  his  dead  away, 
Nor  looks  to  see  the  breaking  day 
Across  the  mournful  marbles  play ; 
Who  hath  not  learned  in  hours  of  faith 
The  truth,  to  flesh  and  sense  unknown, 
That  life  is  ever  lord  of  death, 
And  love  can  never  lose  its  own. 

WHITTIER. 

50 


APRIL 


Sacrifice 

If  any  man  will  come  after  me,  let  him  deny 
himself,  and  take   up    his  cross   daily   and 

follow  me.  —  s.  LUKE  ix.  23. 

Thou  therefore  endure  hardness  as  a  good  soldier 

of  Jesus  Christ. — n  TIMOTHY  ii.  3. 

If  the  devil  take  a  less  hateful  shape  to  us 
than  to  our  fathers,  he  is  as  busy  with  us 
as  with  them ;  and  if  we  cannot  find  it  in  our  hearts 
to  break  with  a  gentleman  of  so  much  worldly 
wisdom,  who  gives  such  admirable  dinners,  and 
whose  manners  are  so  perfect,  so  much  the  worse 
for  us.  —  LOWELL. 

For  if  it  be  a  special  office  of  the  Church 
to  bear  witness  against  the  world,  her  wit- 
ness must  especially  be  borne  against  the  reigning 
vices  of  the  world ;  and  therefore  in  these  days 
against  effeminacy,  the  worship  of  comfort,  and  the 
extravagances  of  luxury.  ...  If  the  Church  has 
to  witness  against  the  reigning  vices  of  the  world, 
each  soul  has  likewise,  if  not  to  witness,  at  least 
to  defend  itself,  against  them.  And  how  shall  it 
defend  itself  against  the  worship  of  bodily  com- 
forts, except  by  depriving  itself  of  them  ?  Change- 
able as  the  world  is,  it  is  unchanging  too.  The 
world,  the  flesh,  and  the  devil  are  practically  the 
same  in  all  ages ;  and  so,  practically,  mortification 
has  the  same  offices  to  perform.  Whether  we 
51 


APRIL 

consider  the  soul  in  the  struggles  of  its  conversion, 
in  the  progress  of  its  illumination  or  in  its  variously 
perfect  degrees  of  union  with  God,  we  shall  find 
that  bodily  mortifications  have  their  own  place,  and 
their  proper  work  to  do,  and  are  literally  indispen- 
sable. —  FABER. 

Conscience,  the  timid  being's  inmost  light, 
Hope  of  the  dawn  and  solace  of  the  night, 
Cheers  these  recluses  with  a  steady  ray 
In  many  an  hour  when  judgment  goes  astray. 
Ah,  scorn  not  hastily  their  rule  who  try 
Earth  to  despise  and  flesh  to  mortify, 
Consume  with  zeal,  in  winged  ecstasies 
Of  prayer  and  praise  forget  their  rosaries, 
Nor  hear  the  loudest  surges  of  St.  Bees. 

WORDSWORTH. 


The  sublime  vision  comes  to  the  pure  and 
simple  soul  in  a  clean  and  chaste  body. 
Milton  says  that  the  epic  poet,  he  who  shall  sing  of 
the  gods,  and  their  descent  unto  men,  must  drink 
water  out  of  a  wooden  bowl.  —  EMERSON. 

There  are,  in  the  soul,  qualities  which 
may  be  acquired  by  exercise  and  habit, 
as  the  body  acquires  certain  powers  and  certain 
habits.  .  .  .  Have  you  never  noticed  how  quickly 
and  clearly  the  small  soul  of  the  wicked  grasps  the 
things  upon  which  it  is  bent,  and  what  power  it 
acquires  in  so  doing  ?  It  sees  very  plainly,  only  it 
chooses  to  direct  its  vision  to  evil  things.  But  take 
52 


APRIL 

those  same  souls  in  infancy,  cut  away  and  prune 
all  the  growth  of  passions  akin  to  the  flesh;  set 
them  free  from  those  heavy  clods  which  cling  to  the 
pleasures  of  the  table  and  similar  delights ;  take 
away  that  weight  which  drags  the  mental  vision 
down  to  everything  which  is  low.  Instantly,  in 
that  same  soul,  the  eye,  set  free,  turns  towards 
realities,  and  sees  them  as  clearly  as  it  now  sees 
those  things  which  absorb  it.  —  PLATO. 

Where  are  the  stern  abstinences   of   St. 

Monica  in  regard  to  the  sorceries  of  the 
earth?  Who  suspects  the  ecstasies  of  which  our 
intemperances  deprive  us  ?  Where  are  souls  ever 
new,  and  growing,  through  their  search  after  wisdom, 
from  childhood  unto  death  ?  And  who  suspects  the 
floods  of  light  and  true  love  which  would  burst 
forth  from  Christian  souls  for  the  salvation  and 
happiness  of  mankind  at  the  cost  of  a  little  effort  ? 

P&RE  GRATRY. 

To  Jesus  self-sacrifice  always  is  a  means 
of  freedom.  That  is  what  always  gives  to 
the  self-denials  which  He  demands  a  triumphant 
and  enthusiastic  air.  Not  because  you  have  not 
deserved  to  enjoy  it,  not  because  it  is  wicked  to 
enjoy  it,  but  because  there  is  another  enjoyment 
more  worthy  of  your  nature,  for  which  the  native 
appetite  shall  show  itself  in  you  the  moment  that 
you  really  lay  hold  of  it  ;  therefore  let  this  first  in- 
ferior enjoyment  go  ;  and  by  this  conception  of  the 
purpose  of  self-sacrifice,  Christ's  law  and  limit  of 
53 


APRIL 

self-sacrifice  is  always  settled.  One  day  a  young 
man  came  to  Jesus.  "What  lack  I  yet?"  And 
then  said  Jesus,  "Go  and  sell  all  that  thou  hast, 
and  thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven  ;  and  come 
and  follow  me."  He  did  not  say,  "  You  do  not  de- 
serve wealth."  He  did  not  say,  "  It  is  wicked  to  be 
rich."  He  only  said,  "  You  will  be  free  if  you  are 
poor,  and  then  I  can  lead  you  to  the  Father,  in 
whom  you  shall  find  yourself."  —  BISHOP  BROOKS. 

jfl££     Hark,  how  I  '11  bribe  you. 

Aye,  with  such  gifts  that  heaven  shall  share 

with  you. 

Not  with  fond  shekels  of  the  tested  gold, 
Or  stones,  whose  rates  are  either  rich  or  poor 
As  fancy  values  them,  but  with  true  prayers, 
That  shall  be  up  at  heaven,  and  enter  there, 
Ere  sunrise ;  prayers  from  preserved  souls, 
From  fasting  maids,  whose  minds  are  dedicate 
To  nothing  temporal. 

SHAKESPEARE. 
54 


FOR  THE  MONTH   OF 
MAY 


9 


T  HAVE  trodden  the  wine-press  alone. 

ISAIAH  Ixiii.  3. 

When  Jesus  therefore  perceived  that  they  would 
come  and  take  him  by  force,  to  make  him  a  king,  he 
departed  again  into  a  mountain  himself  alone. 

S.  JOHN  vi.  15. 

||  "  I  have  trodden  the  wine-press  alone."  The 
sound  of  the  words  is  solemn  and  pensive  and 
almost  mournful.  It  lingers  on  the  ear  like  the  sigh 
of  a  lonely  spirit.  It  seems  to  speak  of  those  bur- 
dens which  the  human  soul  must  bear  alone,  the 
dangers  it  must  struggle  with  alone,  and  of  those 
great  crises  of  existence  in  which  the  arm  of  friend- 
ship and  the  heart  of  love  are  withdrawn  or  are  un- 
availing. .  .  .  We  are  made  for  society,  and  we  are 
also  made  for  solitude.  We  are  made  for  the  free 
and  confiding  converse  of  our  fellow-men,  and  we 
are  made  for  lonely  thoughts  and  emotions  in  which 
none  living  may  take  part.  There  are  a  thousand 
55 


MAY 

ways  in  which  God  will  have  us  feel  that  we  are  one 
for  mutual  aid,  and  He  has  ways  also  to  teach  us 
that  we  are  so  many  separate  beings  and  pass  be- 
fore Him  one  by  one,  and  can  lean  only  upon  Him, 
and  have  no  other  stay.  ...  No  closet,  no  Chris- 
tianity. So  teaches  our  Lord,  and  so  teaches  all 
the  experience  of  His  followers. 

DR.  GEORGE  PUTNAM. 

Ill  Spirituality  did  ever  choose  loneliness.  For 
there  the  far,  the  departed,  the  loved,  the  un- 
seen, the  divine,  throng  freely  in,  and  there  is  no 
let  or  hindrance  to  the  desires  of  our  souls.  Mem- 
ory, the  glass  in  which  we  gaze  on  the  absent,  is 
called  into  requisition  least  where  the  present  are 
thickest.  Solitude  is  our  trysting-place  with  the 
dead.  God  be  thanked  no  earthly  power  can  close 
that  retreat  or  bar  us  from  the  sinless  fellowship  it 

holds.  —  DR.  W.  R.  ALGER. 

ifo  It  is  an  awful  truth,  that  there  neither  is  nor 
can  be  any  genuine  enjoyment  of  poetry  among 
nineteen  out  of  twenty  of  those  persons  who  live, 
or  wish  to  live,  in  the  broad  light  of  the  world,  — 
among  those  who  either  are,  or  are  striving  to  make 
themselves,  people  of  consideration  in  society. 
This  is  a  truth,  and  an  awful  one,  because  to  be 
incapable  of  a  feeling  of  poetry,  in  my  sense  of  the 
word,  is  to  be  without  love  of  human  nature  and 
reverence  for  God.  —  WORDSWORTH. 

56 


MAY 

jj  We  live  too  little  within.  What  has  become  of 
that  inner  eye  which  God  has  given  us  to  keep 
watch  over  the  soul,  to  be  the  witness  of  the  mys- 
terious play  of  thought,  the  ineffable  movement  of 
life,  in  the  tabernacle  of  humanity  ?  It  is  shut ;  it 
sleeps.  —  MAURICE  DE  GU£RIN. 

jjj    The  world 's  infectious ;   few  bring  back    at 

eve, 

Immaculate,  the  manners  of  the  morn. 
Something  we  thought,  is  blotted  ;  we  resolved, 
Is  shaken ;  we  renounced,  returns  again. 
Nor  is  it  strange  :  light,  motion,  concourse,  noise, 
All  scatter  us  abroad  ;  thought,  outward  bound, 
Neglectful  of  our  home  affairs,  flies  off, 
And  leaves  the  breast  unguarded  to  the  foe. 

We  see,  we  hear,  with  peril ;  safety  dwells 

Remote  from  multitude ;  the  world 's  a  school 

Of  wrong,  and  what  proficients  swarm  around ! 

We  must  or  imitate  or  disapprove ; 

Must  list  as  their  accomplices  or  foes  ; 

That  stains  our  innocence ;  this  wounds  our  peace. 

YOUNG. 

foil     I  sit  upon  the  sands  alone  ; 

The  lightning  of  the  noontide  ocean 
Is  flashing  round  me,  and  a  tone 
Arises  from  its  measured  motion, 
How  sweet  did  any  heart  now  share  in  my  emo- 
tion ! 

57 


MAY 

I  love  all  waste 

And  solitary  places,  where  we  taste 
The  pleasure  of  believing  what  we  see 
Is  boundless,  as  we  wish  our  souls  to  be. 

SHELLEY. 

Soctctp 

fojjl    God  setteth  the  solitary  in  families. 

PSALM  Ixviii.  6. 

These  things  I  command  you,  that  ye  love  one 
another.  —  s.  JOHN  xv.  17. 

He  that  loveth  his  brother  abideth  in  the  light. 

I  JOHN  ii.  10. 

|£  I  do  not  mean  by  the  elevation  of  the  labor- 
ing classes  an  outward  change  of  condition. 
It  is  not  release  from  labor.  It  is  not  struggling 
for  another  rank.  It  is  not  political  power.  I 
understand  something  deeper.  I  know  but  one 
elevation  of  a  human  being,  and  that  is  Elevation 
of  Soul.  There  are  not  different  kinds  of  dignity 
for  different  orders  of  men,  but  one  and  the  same 
to  all.  The  only  elevation  of  a  human  being  con- 
sists in  the  exercise,  growth,  energy  of  the  higher 
principles  and  powers  of  his  soul.  A  bird  may  be 
shot  upward  to  the  skies  by  a  foreign  force ;  but  it 
rises,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  only  when  it 
spreads  its  own  wings  and  soars  by  its  own  living 
power.  ...  I  maintain  that  the  philosophy  which 
does  not  see  in  the  laws  and  phenomena  of 
outward  nature  the  means  of  awakening  Mind  is 


MAY 

lamentably  shortsighted ;  and  that  a  state  of  so- 
ciety which  leaves  the  mass  of  men  to  be  crushed 
and  famished  in  soul  by  excessive  toils  on  matter  is 
at  war  with  God's  designs,  and  turns  into  means  of 
bondage  what  was  meant  to  free  and  expand  the 

SOul. — DR.    CHANNING. 

£  Very  hateful  to  the  fervid  heart  and  sincere 
mind  of  Dante  would  have  been  the  modern 
theory  which  deals  with  sin  as  involuntary  error, 
and  by  shifting  off  the  fault  to  the  shoulders  of 
Atavism  or  those  of  Society,  personified  for  pur- 
poses of  excuse,  but  escaping  into  impersonality 
again  from  the  grasp  of  retribution,  weakens  that 
sense  of  personal  responsibility  which  is  the  root  of 
self-respect  and  the  safeguard  of  character.  "  It 
is  Thou,"  he  says  sternly,  "who  hast  done  this 
thing,  and  Thou,  not  Society,  shalt  be  damned  for 
it ;  nay,  damned  all  the  worse  for  this  paltry  subter- 
fuge." —  LOWELL. 

£|  I  put  no  faith  in  any  indefinite  advancement  of 
Society ;  but  I  believe  in  the  development  and 
progress  of  the  individual  human  being.  If  we 
study  carefully  a  representation  of  Society  moulded, 
as  it  were,  upon  the  living  form,  with  all  its  good 
and  all  its  evil,  we  shall  find  that  while  thought  (or 
rather  passion,  which  is  thought  and  feeling  com- 
bined) is  the  social  element  and  bond,  it  is  also  an 
element  of  destruction.  In  this  respect  the  social 
life  is  like  the  physical  life :  races  and  men  attain 
longevity  only  by  the  non-exhaustion  of  the  vital 
59 


MAY 

force.  Consequently,  instruction,  or  to  speak  more 
correctly,  religious  education,  is  the  great  principle 
of  the  life  of  Society,  the  only  means  of  diminish- 
ing the  total  of  evil  and  augmenting  the  total  of  good 
in  human  life.  Thought,  the  fountain  of  all  good 
and  of  all  evil,  cannot  be  trained,  mastered,  and 
directed  except  by  religion ;  and  the  only  possible 
religion  is  Christianity,  which  created  the  modern 
world  and  will  preserve  it.  —  BALZAC. 

$11    Crouch'd  on    the    pavement,   close    by   Bel- 
grave  Square, 

A  tramp  I  saw,  ill,  moody,  and  tongue-tied. 
A  babe  was  in  her  arms,  and  at  her  side 
A  girl;   their  clothes   were  rags,  their  feet  were 
bare. 

,!*::<  j 

Some  laboring  men,  whose  work  lay  somewhere 

there, 

Pass'd  opposite ;  she  touch'd  her  girl,  who  hied 
Across,  and  begg'd,  and  came  back  satisfied. 
The  rich  she  had  let  pass  with  frozen  stare. 

Thought  I :  "  Above  her  state  this  spirit  towers  ; 
She  will  not  ask  of  aliens,  but  of  friends, 
Of  sharers  in  a  common  human  fate. 

"  She  turns  from  that  cold  succor  which  attends 
The  unknown  little  from  the  unknowing  great, 
And  points  us  to  a  better  time  than  ours." 

MATTHEW  ARNOLD. 
60 


MAY 

Flit  God  is  in  fact  the  Preserver  and  Father  of  all 
that  is  in  the  world,  and  He  acts  in  every- 
thing that  acts,  not  as  the  workman  who  labors 
and  grows  weary,  but  as  an  omnipotent  virtue 
which  operates.  —  ARISTOTLE. 

fit)  Our  ordinary  life  with  one  another,  what 
in  the  language  of  the  world  we  call  society, 
has  so  left  and  lost  the  spontaneousness  of  natural 
impulse  and  so  failed  to  attain  the  highest  concep- 
tion of  itself  as  the  family  of  God,  it  so  hangs  fast 
in  the  dull  middle  regions  of  conventional  propriety 
and  selfish  expediency,  that  it  becomes  not  the 
fountain,  but  the  grave,  of  individuality.  Nowhere 
do  we  find  on  earth  that  picture  of  society  recon- 
structed by  the  idea  of  Jesus,  —  society  around  the 
throne  of  God,  which  shines  out  upon  us  from  the 
mysterious  promises  of  the  Apocalypse,  the  glory 
of  which  society  is  to  be  this  :  that  while  the  souls 
stand  in  their  vast  choruses  of  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands, yet  each  bears  the  sacred  name  written  on 
the  flesh  of  his  own  forehead,  and  carries  in  his 
hand  a  white  stone  on  which  is  written  a  new  name 
which  no  man  knoweth  saving  he  that  receiveth  it. 
...  It  is  in  the  wonderful  combination  of  the 
vast  and  transcendental  with  the  minute  and  the 
familiar  in  Him  who  was  both  "conceived  by  the 
Holy  Ghost  "  and  also  "  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary," 
that  the  fitness  of  the  Saviour  not  merely  for  the 
rescue  of  the  soul,  but  for  the  salvation  of  society, 
is  found.  —  BISHOP  BROOKS. 
61 


MAY 


for  Ife 

jfy      I  am  thy  shield,  and  thy  exceeding  great  re- 
ward. —  GENESIS  XV.  I. 

Our  sufficiency  is  of  God.  —  n  CORINTHIANS  iii.  5. 

pfot  The  contemplation  of  God  and  nothing  but  it 
is  able  fully  to  open  and  relieve  the  mind; 
to  unlock,  occupy,  and  fix  our  affections.  We  may 
indeed  love  created  things  with  great  intenseness, 
but  such  affection,  when  disjoined  from  the  love  of 
the  Creator,  is  like  a  stream  running  in  a  narrow 
channel,  impetuous,  vehement,  turbid.  The  heart 
runs  out  only  at  one  door  ;  it  is  not  an  expanding 
of  the  whole  man.  Created  natures  cannot  open  to 
us  or  elicit  the  ten  thousand  mental  senses  which 
belong  to  us,  and  through  which  we  really  live. 
None  but  the  presence  of  our  Maker  can  enter  us, 
for  to  none  besides  can  the  whole  heart  in  all  its 
thoughts  and  feelings  be  unlocked  and  subjected. 
.  .  .  We  know  that  even  our  nearest  friends  enter 
into  us  but  partially,  and  hold  intercourse  with  us 
only  at  times  ;  whereas  the  consciousness  of  a  per- 
fect and  enduring  presence,  and  it  alone,  keeps  our 
heart  open.  ...  If  it  be  not  over-bold  to  say  it  — 
He  who  is  infinite  alone  can  be  its  measure.  He 
alone  can  answer  to  that  mysterious  assemblage  of 
feelings  and  thoughts  which  it  has  within  it. 

CARDINAL  NEWMAN. 
62 


MAY 

Too  late  loved  I  Thee,  O  Thou  Beautiful 
of  ancient  days,  yet  ever  new  !  too  late  I 
loved  Thee  !  And  behold,  Thou  wert  within  and  I 
abroad,  and  there  I  searched  for  Thee  ;  deformed 
I,  plunging  amid  those  fair  forms,  which  Thou 
hadst  made.  Thou  wert  with  me,  but  I  was  not 
with  Thee.  Things  held  me  far  from  Thee,  which, 
unless  they  were  in  Thee,  were  not  at  all.  .  .  . 
When  I  shall  with  my  whole  self  cleave  to  Thee,  I 
shall  nowhere  have  sorrow  or  labor;  and  my  life 
shall  wholly  live,  as  wholly  full  of  Thee.  But  now 
since  whom  Thou  fillest  Thou  liftest  up,  because  I 
am  not  full  of  Thee  I  am  a  burden  to  myself. 

S.  AUGUSTINE. 


But  what  is  infinite  must  be  a  home,     *\ 

A  shelter  for  the  meanest  life, 
Where  it  is  free  to  reach  its  greatest  growth, 
Far  from  the  touch  of  strife. 

Thus  doth  Thy  hospitable  greatness  lie 
Outside  us  like  a  boundless  sea  ; 

We  cannot  lose  ourselves  where  all  is  home 
Nor  drift  away  from  Thee. 

Out  on  that  sea  we  are  in  harbor  still, 
And  scarce  advert  to  winds  and  tides 

Like  ships  that  ride  at  anchor  with  the  waves 
Flapping  against  their  sides. 

FABER. 

63 


MAY 

£j£    Be  sure  that  in  God  alone  can  the  deep  crav- 
ings of  our  immortal  being  find  enough.     He 
has  so  made  man's  heart  for  Himself  that  it  is  ever 
restless  until  it  finds  rest  in  Him. 

CARDINAL  MANNING. 

j*£    Christ!    I    am   Christ's!    and   let   the   name 

suffice  you, 

Aye,  for  me  too  He  greatly  hath  sufficed : 
Lo,  with  no  winning  words  I  will  entice  you, 
Paul  has  no  honor  and  no  friend  but  Christ. 

Yes,  without  cheer  of  sister  or  of  daughter, 
Yes,  without  stay  of  father  or  of  son, 
Lone  on  the  land  and  homeless  on  the  water, 
Pass  I  in  patience  till  the  work  be  done. 

Then  with  a  ripple  and  a  radiance  through  me 
Rise  and  be  manifest,  O  Morning  Star ! 
Flow  on  my  soul  thou  Spirit,  and  renew  me, 
Fill  with  Thyself,  and  let  the  rest  be  far. 

Yea,  through  life,  death,  through  sorrow  and  through 

sinning, 

He  shall  suffice  me,  for  He  hath  sufficed : 
Christ  is  the  end,  for  Christ  was  the  beginning, 
Christ  the  beginning,  for  the  end  is  Christ. 

FREDERIC   W.   H.   MYERS. 

ffli    Where  hath  it  ever  been  well  with  me  with- 
out Thee  ?   or  when  could  it  be  ill  with  me, 
when  Thou  wert  present  ? 


MAY 

For  many  friends  cannot  profit,  nor  strong  helpers 
assist,  nor  prudent  counsellors  give  a  profitable 
answer,  nor  the  books  of  the  learned  afford  com- 
fort, nor  any  precious  substance  deliver,  nor  any 
place,  however  retired  and  lovely,  give  shelter, 
unless  Thou  Thyself  dost  assist,  help,  strengthen, 
console,  instruct,  and  guard  me.  —  A  KEMPIS. 

J&nototng  <250*r 

I  will  even  betroth  thee  unto  me  in  faithful- 
ness ;  and  thou  shalt  know  the  Lord. 

HOSEA  ii.  20. 

That  I  may  know  him,  and  the  power  of  his  res- 
urrection, and  the  fellowship  of  his  sufferings. 

PHILIPPIANS  iii.  10. 


m  human  nature  a  faculty  separate 
from  the  faculties  by  which  we  judge  of  the 
things  of  sense  and  the  abstractions  of  the  pure 
intellect,  but  yet  a  true  and  trustworthy  faculty, 
for  knowing  God  —  for  knowing  God  in  some  such 
way  as  we  know  the  spirits  and  souls,  half  dis- 
closed, half  concealed  under  the  mask  and  garment 
of  the  flesh,  among  whom  we  have  been  brought 
up,  among  whom  we  live  ?  Can  we  know  Him  in 
such  a  true  sense  as  we  know  those  whom  we  love 
and  those  whom  we  dislike  ?  Is  there  a  faculty 
in  the  human  soul  for  knowing  its  Maker  and 
God  —  knowing  Him,  though  behind  the  veil  — 
knowing  Him,  though  flesh  and  blood  can  never  see 
Him  —  knowing  Him,  though  the  questioning  in- 
65 


MAY 

tellect  loses  itself  in  the  thought  of  Him  ?  .  .  .  In 
the  Psalms  is  the  evidence  of  that  faculty.  The 
proof  that  the  living  God  can  be  known  by  man  is 
that  He  can  be  loved  and  longed  for  with  all  the 
freedom  and  naturalness  and  hope  of  human  affec- 
tion. The  answer  whether  God  has  given  to  man 
the  faculty  to  know  Him  might  be  sought  in  vain  in 
the  Vedas  or  the  Zendavesta.  It  is  found  in  the 
book  of  Psalms.  —  DEAN  CHURCH. 


day,  at  tne  corner  of  a  street,  in  some 
solitary  path,  we  stop  —  we  listen,  and  a 
voice  whispers  to  us  in  the  centre  of  our  souls,  "  Be- 
hold, there  is  Jesus  Christ,"  a  heavenly  moment  in 
which  the  soul,  after  gazing  on  a  thousand  perish- 
able beauties,  discovers  at  a  single  glance  that  one 
Beauty  which  can  never  deceive.  Those  who  have 
never  experienced  this  may  treat  it  as  a  dream, 
but  those  who  have  once  beheld  what  I  speak  of 
can  never  forget  it  more.  ...  I  can  no  longer  love 
any  one,  without  the  soul  stealing  behind  the  heart, 
so  that  Jesus  Christ  stands  between  us. 

LACORDAIRE. 

j£j*fo    He  who  has  never  watched  in  sorrow,  and 
watered  his  bed  with  tears,  knows  you  not, 
ye  heavenly  powers.  —  GOETHE. 


The  more  I  study  happy  people,  the  more 
I  feel  terrified  at  their  incapacity  for  divine 
things  ;  that  is,  with  some  few  exceptions.     And 
even  what  we  take  for  exceptions  may  probably 
66 


MAY 

only  seem  such  from  our  ignorance  of  the  real  state 
of  the  heart.  Suffering  has  a  thousand  unknown 
doors  by  which  to  enter,  besides  those  grand  ones 
which  are  seen  by  all  the  world.  It  makes  itself 
many  a  secret  way,  hidden  perhaps  by  flowers,  and 
travels  fast  and  far;  for  it  is  the  most  active  of 
God's  messengers.  It  carries  the  cross  of  Jesus 
Christ  ;  and  humanity  is  so  shaped  as  to  allow  of 
that  burden  passing  everywhere.  Whoever  attains 
to  the  knowledge  and  love  of  God  has  nothing  to 
desire  and  nothing  to  regret;  he  has  received  the 
highest  of  all  gifts,  which  ought  to  make  us  forget 
all  besides.  —  LACORDAIRE. 


^  ^ie  greatest  trials  and  miseries  of 
this  life  seems  to  me  to  be  the  absence  of 
a  grand  spirit  to  keep  the  body  under  control  ;  ill- 
nesses and  grievous  afflictions,  though  they  are  a 
trial,  I  think  nothing  of  if  the  soul  is  strong,  for  it 
praises  God,  and  sees  that  everything  comes  from 
His  hand.  But  to  be  on  the  one  hand  suffering, 
and  on  the  other  doing  nothing,  is  to  be  in  a  fear- 
ful state,  especially  for  a  soul  that  has  had  earnest 
desires  never  to  rest  inwardly  or  outwardly. 

S.  THERESA. 

In  contrast  with  the  moral  impulse  of  the 
mind  which    looks   at    the  differences  of 

things  is  the  devout  which  seeks  their  unity.  .  .  . 

We  sigh  for  a  conscious  union  with  God,  which  is 

far  from  being  implied  in  mere  obedience  to  Him  ; 

nay,  which  is  excluded  till  obedience  gives  place  to 


MAY 

a  freer  and  less  reluctant  harmony  with  Him.  .  .  . 
Without  this  mood  of  contemplative  oneness  with 
God,  this  genial  melting  of  our  life  in  His,  there 
may  be  in  us  no  want  of  masculine  sense  and  en- 
ergy, of  clear  truth  and  honor,  of  faithful  constancy 
under  temptation ;  but  there  will  also  be  a  Jewish 
hardness  and  narrowness  of  mind,  a  dry,  unmel- 
lowed  temper,  an  egotistic  and  critical  irreverence 
for  all  that  will  not  submit  to  our  survey.  If  aspi- 
ration is  not  to  die  out  from  our  religion,  —  if  affec- 
tion and  self-oblivion  are  not  to  fly  away  and  leave 
it  empty  of  all  diviner  habitant,  —  if  the  love  of 
God,  as  a  passion  and  a  power,  is  not  to  be  insult- 
ingly dismissed  among  the  romances  of  the  past, 
we  must  open  a  more  hospitable  heart  to  the  Gos- 
pel of  the  Spirit,  and  more  deeply  enter  into  the 
life  of  the  living  God.  —  DR.  JAMES  MARTINEAU. 

Thou  hidden  love  of  God,  whose  height, 
Whose  depth  unfathomed,  no  man  knows  ! 

I  see  from  far  thy  beauteous  light ; 

Inly  I  sigh  for  thy  repose ; 

Then  shall  my  heart  from  care  be  free, 

When  it  hath  found  repose  in  thee. 

Each  moment  draw  from  earth  away 
My  heart  that  lowly  waits  thy  call. 
Speak  to  my  inmost  soul,  and  say, 
"  I  am  thy  Love,  thy  God,  thy  All." 
To  feel  thy  power,  to  hear  thy  voice, 
To  taste  thy  love,  is  all  my  choice. 

GERHARD  TERSTEEGEN,  TR.  BY  JOHN  WESLEY. 
68 


MAY 

fflf    Painting  nor  sculpture  now  can  lull  to  rest 

My  soul  that  turns  to  His  great  love  on  high, 
Whose  arms  to  clasp  us  on  the  cross  were  spread. 

MICHAEL  ANGELO. 

Thou,  who  dost  dwell  alone ; 

Thou,  who  dost  know  thine  own ; 
Thou  to  whom  all  are  known, 
From  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  — 

Save,  O,  save ! 

From  the  world's  temptations ; 
From  tribulations ; 
From  that  fierce  anguish 
Wherein  we  languish; 
From  that  torpor  deep 
Wherein  we  lie  asleep, 
Heavy  as  death,  cold  as  the  grave,  — 
Save,  O,  save ! 

MATTHEW  ARNOLD. 
69 


FOR   THE  MONTH   OF 
JUNE 


SDotrtte 

T    ORD,  I  believe ;  help  thou  mine  unbelief. 

s.  MARK  ix.  24. 

Take  heed,  brethren,  lest  there  be  in  any  of  you 
an  evil  heart  of  unbelief,  in  departing  from  the 
living  God.  — HEBREWS  iii.  12. 

H  Why  should  we  reject  that  light  which  consoles 
the  heart  because  it  is  mingled  with  obscurity 
which  humbles  the  intellect  ?  Should  not  the  true 
religion  elevate  and  lower  man  by  showing  him  at 
once  his  greatness  and  his  weakness  ?  You  have  not, 
as  yet,  a  sufficiently  enlarged  view  of  Christianity. 
.  .  .  We  are  not  to  examine  whether  it  is  neces- 
sary for  God  to  reveal  to  us  mysteries  in  order 
to  humble  our  understanding.  The  question  is 
whether  or  not  He  has  revealed  them.  If  He  has 
spoken,  obedience  and  love  cannot  be  separated. 
Christianity  is  a  fact,  .  .  .  Does  not  God  possess 
an  infinite  knowledge  which  we  have  not?  If  He 
makes  known  some  part  of  it  by  supernatural 
70 


JUNE 

means,  we  are  no  longer  to  examine  into  the  nature 
of  what  is  revealed,  but  into  the  certainty  of  the  rev- 
elation ;  mysteries  appear  to  us  to  be  inconsistent 
without  in  reality  being  so.  —  FENELON. 

Ill  When  St.  Louis  himself  was  troubled,  how 
many  souls  must  have  doubted,  and  suffered  in 
silence  !  But  the  bitterness  of  this  first  falling  off 
in  faith  was  that  men  shrank  from  avowing  it.  At 
this  day  we  are  inured  and  hardened  to  the  torments 
of  doubt :  the  points  are  blunted.  .  .  .  Christ  him- 
self, of  whom  Job  was  the  type,  experienced  this 
anguish  of  doubt,  this  night  of  the  soul,  when  not 
a  star  appears  above  the  horizon.  'T  is  the  last 
pang  of  the  Passion  ;  the  summit  of  the  cross.  .  .  . 
Although  the  Passion  is  active  and  voluntary,  inas- 
much as  this  will  is  in  a  body,  this  soul  in  a  cover- 
ing, this  God  in  a  man,  there  is  a  moment  of  fear 
and  doubt.  It  is  this  which  rends  in  twain  the 
veil  of  the  temple,  which  shrouds  the  earth  in  dark- 
ness, which  troubles  me  as  I  read  the  Gospel,  and 
which  to  this  day  wrings  tears  from  me.  That  God 
should  have  doubted  God !  that  the  sacred  victim 
should  have  said,  "  Father,  Father,  have  you  then 
forsaken  me  " !  —  MICHELET. 

ilj     The  sea  of  faith 

Was  once,  too,  at  the  full,  and  round  earth's 

shore 

Lay  like  the  folds  of  a  bright  girdle  furl'd  ; 
But  now  I  only  hear 
Its  melancholy,  long,  withdrawing  roar, 


JUNE 

Retreating,  to  the  breath 

Of  the  night-wind,  down  the  vast  edges  drear 

And  naked  shingles  of  the  world. 

MATTHEW  ARNOLD. 

j)  A  little  philosophy  withdraws  us  from  religion, 
but  a  good  deal  of  philosophy  brings  us  back  to  it 
again :  nobody  denies  the  existence  of  God,  except- 
ing the  man  who  has  reason  to  wish  that  there  were 
none.  —  BACON. 

jjj    You  say,  but  with  no  touch  of  scorn, 

Sweet-hearted,  you,  whose  light-blue  eyes 
Are  tender  over  drowning  flies, 
You  tell  me,  doubt  is  Devil-born. 

I  know  not :  one  indeed  I  knew 
In  many  a  subtle  question  versed, 
Who  touched  a  jarring  lyre  at  first, 
But  ever  strove  to  make  it  true : 

Perplext  in  faith,  but  pure  in  deeds, 
At  last  he  beat  his  music  out. 
There  lives  more  faith  in  honest  doubt, 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds. 

He  fought  his  doubts  and  gathered  strength, 
He  would  not  make  his  judgment  blind, 
He  faced  the  spectres  of  the  mind 
And  laid  them. 

TENNYSON. 

72 


JUNE 

foil    From  doubt,  where  all  is  double, 
Where  wise  men  are  not  strong  ; 
Where  comfort  turns  to  trouble  ; 
Where  just  men  suffer  wrong  ; 
Where  faiths  are  built  on  dust  ; 
Where  love  is  half  mistrust, 
Hungry,  and  barren,  and  sharp  as  the  sea  ; 
O,  set  us  free  ! 

O,  let  the  false  dream  fly 

Where  our  sick  souls  do  lie, 

Tossing  continually. 

O,  where  thy  voice  doth  come, 

Let  all  doubts  be  dumb  ; 

Let  all  words  be  mild  ; 

All  strife  be  reconciled  ; 

All  pains  beguiled. 

Light  bring  no  blindness  ; 

Love  no  unkindness  ; 

Knowledge  no  ruin  ; 

Fear  no  undoing, 

From  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  — 

Save,  O,  save  !  MATTHEW  ARNOLD. 


Now  faith  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped 
for.  —  HEBREWS  xi.  i. 

Ye  believe  not  because  ye  are  not  of  my  sheep, 
as  I  said  unto  you.  My  sheep  hear  my  voice  and 
I  know  them  and  they  follow  me. 

s.  JOHN  x.  26,  27. 
73 


JUNE 

|£  What  is  here  said  about  exercises  of  reason  in 
order  to  believing  ?  What  is  there  not  said  of 
sympathetic  feeling,  of  newness  of  spirit,  of  love  ? 
The  safeguard  of  faith  is  a  right  state  of  heart. 
This  it  is  which  gives  it  birth ;  it  also  disciplines  it. 
...  It  is  holiness,  or  dutifulness,  or  the  new  crea- 
tion, or  the  spiritual  mind,  however  we  word  it, 
which  is  the  quickening  and  illuminating  principle 
of  true  faith,  giving  it  eyes,  and  hands,  and  feet.  It 
is  Love  which  forms  it  out  of  the  rude  chaos  into 
an  image  of  Christ.  .  .  .  We  believe  because  we 
love.  How  plain  a  truth.  —  CARDINAL  NEWMAN. 

£  There  is  a  Christian  experience  which  depends 
very  little  upon  sight,  and  is  a  faith  more  than  it  is 
anything  else  because  it  is  the  answer  to  the  appeal 
which  Jesus  makes  to  our  consciences,  and  our 
moral  sense,  and  our  innate  religiousness,  —  our 
welcome  of  the  Master's  sweet  and  comfortable 
words,  our  joyful  response  to  His  Gospel  of  forgive- 
ness and  Divine  help,  and  life  and  immortality.  .  .  . 
It  is  blessed  to  believe  in  Him  because  He  brings 
us  to  God,  and  reconciles  us  to  man,  and  Himself 
takes  our  infirmities,  and  speaks  to  us  words  of 
eternal  life.  Blessed  are  they  who  believe  in  the 
perpetuity  of  Christianity  because  they  see  how  in- 
dependent it  is  of  so  much  knowledge  which  may 
be  discredited,  and  of  so  much  opinion  which  may 
become  only  a  fashion  of  the  past,  and  how  it  cre- 
ates ages  of  faith  instead  of  being  created  by  them. 

DR.  RUFUS  ELLIS. 

74 


JUNE 

jft  There  is  no  power  but  in  conviction.  If  a  train 
of  reasoning  is  strong,  a  poem  divine,  a  pic- 
ture beautiful,  it  is  because  the  understanding  or  the 
eye,  to  whose  judgment  they  are  submitted,  is  con- 
vinced of  a  certain  truth,  hidden  in  this  reasoning, 
this  poem,  this  picture.  .  .  .  Friendship,  patriotism, 
love,  every  noble  sentiment,  is  likewise  a  species  of 
faith.  For  the  same  reason,  they  who  believe  no- 
thing, who  treat  all  the  convictions  of  the  soul  as 
illusions,  who  consider  every  noble  action  as  insan- 
ity, —  for  the  same  reason  such  hearts  will  never 
achieve  anything  great  or  generous :  they  have 
faith  only  in  matter  and  in  death,  and  they  are 
already  insensible  as  the  one,  and  cold  and  icy  as 
the  other.  .  .  .  Faith,  celestial  comforter,  thou  dost 
more  than  remove  mountains  :  thou  takest  away  the 
heavy  burdens  by  which  the  heart  of  man  is  griev- 
ously oppressed !  —  CHATEAUBRIAND. 

Y\l  The  eye  is  not  made  for  the  source  of  light, 
but  only  for  the  objects  which  the  rays  from 
that  source  strike.  This  fact  is  full  of  deep  mean- 
ing. It  is  the  same  with  our  soul.  In  the  nat- 
ural state  of  man,  our  soul  is  incapable  of  seeing 
God  himself;  but  it  is  made  for  the  light  which 
He  diffuses,  and  which  He  sheds  upon  that  soul 
and  upon  all  objects.  To  see  God  himself  requires 
a  modification  of  human  nature,  a  conversion,  a 
transformation ;  or  rather  a  new  birth,  which  man 
cannot  by  his  own  efforts  attain,  and  which  God 
alone,  who  created  him,  can  give  him.  After  this 
supernatural  new  birth,  the  soul  can  and  should  see 
75 


JUNE 

God.  And  its  first  look  at  God  is  faith,  — -  faith 
which  is  dim  at  first,  like  the  first  inkling  of  a  great 
light,  but  which  becomes  clear  vision  in  proportion 
to  the  growth  of  our  soul.  —  PERE  GRATRY. 

fill    Faith,  that  dawning  vision. 

THOMAS  AQUINAS. 

Faith,  that  attempt  at  vision.  —  BOSSUET. 

Plfo     Lord  !  I  believe  ;  but  thou  dost  know 

My  faith  is  cold  and  weak  : 
Pity  my  frailty,  and  bestow 
The  confidence  I  seek. 

Yes !  I  believe,  and  only  thou 
Canst  give  my  soul  relief : 
Lord !  to  thy  truth  my  spirit  bow  ; 
Help  thou  my  unbelief. 

DR.  JOHN  R.  WREFORD. 

Perfection  t&tDttgf)  Suffering 

jfl)    Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as  your  Father 
which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect. 

S.  MATTHEW  V.  48. 

For  it  became  him,  for  whom  are  all  things,  and 
by  whom  are  all  things,  in  bringing  many  sons  unto 
glory,  to  make  the  captain  of  their  salvation  perfect 
through  sufferings.  —  HEBREWS  ii.  10. 

£i)t     In  the  Cross  is  salvation,  in  the  Cross  is  life, 
in  the  Cross  is  strength  of  mind,  in  the  Cross 
76 


JUNE 

joy  of  spirit,  in  the  Cross  the  height  of  virtue,  in 
the  Cross  the  perfection  of  sanctity.  —  A  KEMPIS. 

£foll  You  are  good;  you  want  to  be  better,  and 
you  are  making  great  efforts  in  the  details  of 
life ;  but  I  am  afraid  that  you  are  encroaching 
rather  too  much  upon  the  inner  life  in  order  to  * 
adapt  the  outer  life  to  the  demands  of  society,  and  f 
that  you  are  not  sufficiently  denying  the  very  inmost 
self.  .  .  .  We  sometimes  indulge  in  certain  half- 
concealed  clingings  to  our  grandeur,  our  reputation, 
our  comforts.  If  we  look  carefully  within  ourselves, 
we  shall  find  that  there  are  certain  limits  beyond 
which  we  refuse  to  go  in  offering  ourselves  to  God. 
We  hover  around  these  reservations,  making  be- 
lieve not  to  see  them,  for  fear  of  self-reproach,  — 
guarding  them  as  the  apple  of  the  eye.  The  more 
we  shrink  from  giving  up  any  such  reserved  point, 
the  more  certain  it  is  that  it  needs  to  be  given  up. 

FENELON. 

jfyiii    The  perfect  way  is  hard  to  flesh, 

It  is  not  hard  to  love ; 
If  thou  wert  sick  for  want  of  God, 
How  swiftly  wouldst  thou  move. 

Be  docile  to  thine  unseen  Guide, 
Love  Him  as  He  loves  thee ; 
Time  and  obedience  are  enough, 
And  thou  a  saint  shall  be. 

FABER. 
77 


JUNE 

£|£  If  you  touch  the  Cross,  it  will  leave  its  mark 
upon  you.  If  you  bear  no  print  of  the  Cross, 
be  sure  that  you  have  never  touched  it  yet.  Sorrow, 
humility,  self-denial,  a  tender  conscience,  a  spirit  of 
love,  —  these  are  the  marks  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  the 
print  of  the  nails,  and  the  pledges  of  our  pardon. 

CARDINAL  MANNING. 

PP  If  ever  we  are  left  to  look  upon  the  cross 
and  all  that  it  symbolizes  as  a  stumbling-block 
and  foolishness,  and  to  think  how  much  more  fit 
and  attractive  it  would  have  been  if  our  Leader  had 
been  made  one  of  the  bright  children  of  the  morn- 
ing, and  his  life  made  all  beautiful  through  this 
world's  felicities  and  charms,  let  us  remember  that 
this  world's  prosperity  and  beauty  and  joy,  though 
they  are  God's  gifts,  though  they  are  meant  for 
men,  and  may  be  sought  and  welcomed  and  grate- 
fully enjoyed,  are  not  the  highest  things,  —  are  not 
a  religion  nor  the  basis  of  a  religion,  —  are  of  the 
world,  worldly ;  good,  but  not  best ;  beautiful,  but 
not  the  most  beautiful ;  not  a  religion ;  that  love  and 
duty  and  self-renunciation  and  superiority  to  the 
world,  —  that  these  are  highest  and  best,  that  these 
are  religion,  that  the  Leader  and  Christ  must  shine 
preeminently  in  these,  and  that  these  can  flourish 
and  blossom  and  ripen  only  under  the  shadow 
of  a  cross,  and  that,  therefore,  the  cross  is  not  an 
offence  or  a  foolishness,  but  a  necessity  and  a  boon, 
the  one  true  symbol  of  God's  best  love  and  man's 
highest  hope  and  destiny. 

DR.  GEORGE  PUTNAM. 
78 


JUNE 

££|    God  draws  a  cloud  over  each  gleaming  morn. 

Would  we  ask  why  ? 
It  is  because  all  noblest  things  are  born 

In  agony. 

Only  upon  some  cross  of  pain  or  woe 

God's  son  may  lie ; 
Each  soul  redeemed  from  self  and  sin  must  know 

Its  Calvary. 

FRANCES   POWER  COBBE. 


J&notolefcge  from  ©Sentence 

j*j*|j      If  any  man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall  know 

of  the  doctrine.  —  s.  JOHN  vii.  17. 
Every  one  that  doeth  evil  hateth  the  light,  and 
cometh  not  to  the  light,  that  his  works  may  not  be 
reproved.  —  s.  JOHN  iii.  20. 

Intellectual  errors  result  from  moral  defects. 
The  soul  of  man  is  one  and  indivisible,  and 
the  intellect  and  will  are  but  diverse  faculties  of  this 
one  indivisible  soul.  As  one  speck  of  dust  obscures 
the  sight,  so  one  disordered  affection  will  influence 
and  pervert  the  judgment.  And  this  the  more 
powerfully  because  its  action  is  so  often  unper- 
ceived. 

Of  this  power  to  warp  the  judgment,  Hobbes 
had  before  remarked  that  if  men  had  any  interests 
at  stake,  they  would  doubt  and  deny  the  axioms  of 

Euclid.  —  HETTINGER. 

79 


JUNE 

As  the  man  is,  so  is  his  God  ; 
Therefore  is  God  so  often  mocked. 

GOETHE. 


The  human  intellect  is  not  a  dry  light,  but  re- 
ceives a  tincture  from  the  will  and  affections  ; 
hence  it    generates    knowledge  according    to  its 
wishes,  for  what  a  man  would  rather  was  true,  that 
he  more  easily  believes.  —  BACON. 

££ijj     If  the  proposition  that  three  angles  of  a  tri- 
angle equalled  two  right  angles  involved  any 
moral  obligation,  its  truth  would  soon  be  called  in 
question.  —  DE  BONALD. 

Jflfoil  In  all  human  science  and  knowledge  the 
will  is  the  immediate  and  principal  agent. 
For  it  is  the  will  which  finally  determines  the  in- 
telligence, and  which,  by  its  own  power,  can  reject 
any  conclusion  whether  necessary  or  deduced. 

ULRICI. 


All  knowledge  must  be  based  on  morals, 
or  at  least  has  its  moral  side  ;  man  can- 
not grasp  with  his  intellect  truths  which  his  heart 
rejects,  since  in  hardening  his  will  he  hardens  also 
his  understanding  against  the  truth.  The  imme- 
diate cause  of  error  is  indeed  in  the  darkening 
of  the  understanding,  but  its  root  lies  in  corruption 
of  the  will  and  its  revolt  from  God.  The  chief 
sources  of  our  errors  are,  then,  to  be  found  in  the 
will.  Indeed,  we  never  discover  the  moral  character 
So 


JUNE 

of  an  error  until  we  have  overcome  and  rejected  it, 
then  its  connection  with  our  inclinations  and  faults 
is  plain.  —  DOLLINGER. 


In  God's  spiritual  universe  there  are  no  fa->/ 
vorites  of  heaven  who  can  attain  knowledge  ' 
and  spiritual  wisdom  apart  from  obedience.  It  is 
not  a  rare,  partial  condescension  of  God,  arbitrary 
and  causeless,  which  gives  knowledge  of  the  Truth 
to  some,  and  shuts  it  out  from  others  ;  but  a  vast, 
universal,  glorious  law.  The  light  lighteth  every 
man  that  cometh  into  the  world.  "  If  any  man 
shall  do  His  will,  he  shall  know."  .  .  .  You  ask 
bitterly,  like  Pontius  Pilate,  What  is  Truth  ?  In 
such  an  hour  what  remains  ?  I  reply,  Obedience. 
Leave  those  thoughts  for  the  present.  Act  —  be 
merciful  and  gentle  —  honest  ;  force  yourself  to 
abound  in  little  services  ;  try  to  do  good  to  others  ; 
be  true  to  the  Duty  that  you  know.  That  must  be 
right  whatever  else  is  uncertain.  And  by  all  the 
laws  of  the  human  heart,  by  the  word  of  God,  you 
shall  not  be  left  to  doubt.  Do  that  much  of  the 
will  of  God  which  is  plain  to  you,  "  You  shall  know 
of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God." 

F.  W.  ROBERTSON. 

fffl    But,  above  all,  the  victory  is  most  sure 

For  him  who,  seeking  faith  by  virtue,  strives 
To  yield  entire  obedience  to  the  Law 
Of  Conscience  reverenced  and  obeyed, 
As  God's  most  intimate  presence  in  the  soul, 
And  His  most  perfect  image  in  the  world. 

8l  WORDSWORTH. 


FOR  THE  MONTH  OF 
JULY 


T    ET  the  oppressed  go  free.  —  ISAIAH  Iviii.  6. 

And  ye  shall  know  the  truth,  and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free.  —  s.  JOHN  viii.  32. 

If  the  Son  therefore  shall  make  you  free,  ye  shall 
be  free  indeed.  —  s.  JOHN  viii.  36. 

II  The  body  of  the  laws  and  the  spirit  of  them 
should  tend  to  enlighten  to  the  utmost  the  Peo- 
ple, that  is,  persons  who  own  nothing,  workmen, 
proletaries,  etc.,  so  as  to  advance  them  as  soon  as 
possible  into  the  easy  circumstances  of  the  inter- 
mediate class.  But,  while  so  doing,  the  People 
should  be  kept  under  a  powerful  control,  so  that  its 
individuals  may  be  able  to  find  light,  help,  and  pro- 
tection ;  and  that  no  ideas,  no  combinations  or  in- 
trigues, should  make  it  turbulent.  The  greatest 
liberty  should  be  given  to  the  upper  class,  for  it  has 
much  to  preserve  and  all  to  lose,  and  cannot,  there- 
fore, become  licentious.  The  government  should 
have  all  possible  power.  Thus,  the  government, 
82 


JULY 

the  upper  class,  and  the  middle  class  have  each  an 
interest  in  making  the  lowest  class  happy  and  able 
to  rise  into  the  middle  class,  in  which  lies  the  real 
power  of  all  States.  This  system  appears  to  me, 
not  the  best,  but  the  least  defective.  —  BALZAC. 

ttt  The  principles  of  Christianity  are  the  future  of 
the  world.  Of  all  my  projects,  my  studies,  and 
my  experiences,  nothing  remains  to  me  save  a  com- 
plete disenchantment  of  everything  that  the  world 
pursues.  My  religious  convictions,  as  they  have 
grown  and  developed,  have  swallowed  up  all  other 
convictions  ;  on  the  whole  earth  there  is  not  a  more 
believing  Christian  and  a  more  incredulous  man 
than  myself.  Far  from  having  reached  its  final 
term,  the  religion  of  the  Great  Deliverer  has  scarcely 
entered  its  third  or  political  period.  The  gospel 
which  contains  our  sentence  of  acquittal  has  not 
yet  been  read  by  all.  .  .  .  Christianity,  so  stable 
in  its  dogmas,  is  ever  changeful  in  its  lights :  its 
transformation  includes  the  transformation  of  all 
things.  When  it  shall  have  attained  its  highest 
point  the  darkness  will  be  entirely  cleared  away; 
Liberty,  crucified  on  Calvary  with  the  Messiah,  will 
thence  descend  with  Him;  and  she  will  restore  to 
the  nations  that  New  Testament  which  was  written 
in  their  favor,  and  which  has  hitherto  been  fettered 
in  its  operation.  —  CHATEAUBRIAND. 

ft)    The  conception  of  man's  freedom  as  ethical  and 

spiritual,  as  resting  upon  the  infinite  worth  of 

human  personality,  and  its  direct  relation  with  the 

83 


JULY 

Divine  Personality,  has  been  the  direct  source  of 
all  that  is  noblest  in  modern  civilization.  It  is  a 
principle  which  has  been  too  strong  for  the  usur- 
pations, whether  of  Churches  or  of  States,  and 
which  has  issued  in  the  gradual  emancipation  of  the 
forces  which  make  up  individual  life.  Liberty  of 
person,  liberty  of  property,  liberty  of  worship,  liberty 
of  education,  —  they  are  all  the  fruits  of  what  Victor 
Hugo  has  called  finely,  if  with  too  French  rhetoric, 
the  Tree  of  Liberty  which  was  planted  on  Gol- 
gotha eighteen  centuries  ago. 

QUARTERLY   REVIEW. 

j)  The  rule  of  the  people  looks  to  something 
higher  than  opportunity  for  every  man  to  have 
food  and  a  home,  to  something  more  than  putting  a 
church,  a  school,  and  a  newspaper  at  every  man's 
door.  Saints  and  heroes,  philosophers  and  poets, 
are  a  people's  glory.  They  give  us  nobler  loves, 
higher  thoughts,  diviner  aims.  They  show  us  how 
like  a  god  man  may  become;  and  political  and 
social  institutions  which  make  saints  and  heroes, 
philosophers  and  poets  impossible  can  have  but 
inferior  value.  —  BISHOP  SPALDING. 

fol    Of  old  sat  Freedom  on  the  heights, 
The  thunders  breaking  at  her  feet : 
Above  her  shook  the  starry  lights : 
She  heard  the  torrents  meet. 

Her  open  eyes  desire  the  truth. 

The  wisdom  of  a  thousand  years 


JULY 

Is  in  them.     May  perpetual  youth 

Keep  dry  their  light  from  tears ; 

That  her  fair  form  may  stand  and  shine, 

Make  bright  our  days  and  light  our  dreams, 

Turning  to  scorn  with  lips  divine 
The  falsehood  of  extremes ! 

TENNYSON. 

foil    Another  star  'neath  Time's  horizon  dropped 

To  gleam  o'er  unknown  lands  and  seas ; 
Another  heart  that  beat  for  freedom  stopped  — 
What  mournful  words  are  these ! 

Yet  Thou  hast  called  him,  nor  art  Thou  unkind, 
O  Love  Divine,  for  'tis  thy  will 
That  gracious  natures  leave  their  love  behind 
To  work  for  Freedom  still. 

LOWELL. 

Itiertp 

kilt    Though  I  be  free  from  all  men,  yet  have  I 
made  myself  servant  unto  all,  that  I  might 
gain  the  more.  —  i  CORINTHIANS  ix.  19. 

I  came  down  from  Heaven  not  to  do  my  own 
will,  but  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  me.  My  meat  is 
to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  me. 

S.  JOHN  iv.  34. 

IP    My  own  teaching  has  been  and  is  that  Liberty, 
whether  in  the  body,  soul,  or  political  estate  of 
85 


JULY 

man,  is  only  another  word  for  Death,  and  the  final 
issue  of  Death  —  Putrefaction ;  the  body,  spirit, 
and  political  estate  being  healthy  only  by  their 
bonds  and  laws.  —  RUSKIN. 

£  When  God  made  man  in  the  beginning,  He  gave 
him  a  perfect  liberty.  Now  the  first  temptation 
came  through  the  intellect,  and  as  it  passed  through 
the  thoughts,  it  wrought  upon  the  soul,  it  under- 
mined the  steadfastness  of  the  will.  The  abuse  of 
its  liberty  and  power  was  this  :  to  do  evil,  to  break 
the  known  law.  .  .  .  The  Sacred  Heart  of  Christ 
our  Lord  and  King  is  always  by  the  power  of  His 
love  attracting  the  human  will  in  all  its  freedom  to 
Himself.  Out  of  the  unwilling  He  creates  the  will- 
ing. Liberty  without  Jesus  Christ  is  the  worst 
of  bondage.  My  yoke  is  sweet,  my  burden  light. 
Liberty  is  in  the  heart.  True  liberty  is  in  the  ser- 
vice of  Him  who  must  reign  until  He  hath  put  all 
His  enemies  under  His  feet. 

CARDINAL  MANNING. 

PI  The  founders  of  New  England  were  sober, 
earnest,  and  thoughtful  men;  and  it  was  no 
Utopia,  no  New  Atlantis,  no  realization  of  a  splen- 
did dream,  which  they  had  at  heart,  but  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  divine  principle  of  Authority  on 
the  common  interest  and  the  common  consent ;  the 
making,  by  a  contribution  from  the  free-will  of  all, 
a  power  which  should  curb  and  guide  the  free-will 
of  each  for  the  general  good.  .  .  .  John  of  Leyden 
had  taught  them  how  unendurable  by  the  nostrils 
86 


JULY 

of  honest  men  is  the  corruption  of  the  right  of  pri- 
vate judgment  in  the  evil  and  selfish  hearts  of  men 
when  no  thorough  mental  training  has  developed 
the  understanding  and  given  the  judgment  its  need- 
ful means  of  comparison  and  correction.  They 
knew  that  liberty  in  the  hands  of  feeble-minded  and 
unreasoning  persons  (and  all  the  worse  if  they  are 
honest)  means  nothing  more  than  the  supremacy  of 
their  particular  form  of  imbecility  ;  means  nothing 
less,  therefore,  than  downright  chaos,  a  Bedlam-  y 
chaos  of  monomaniacs  and  bores.  —  LOWELL. 

fil  To  know  the  truth  and  obey  it  makes  us  free. 
To  know  the  truths  of  the  physical  and  ma- 
terial  world  and  to  act  in  accordance  with  them 
makes  us  free  in  the  domain  of  the  body  and  the 
senses.  To  know  the  laws  of  intelligence  and  to 
obey  them  makes  the  intellect  free  to  discover  the 
truth.  To  know  the  moral  laws  and  obey  them 
frees  us  from  the  power  of  moral  evil.  To  know 
the  laws  of  the  spiritual  world  and  to  conform  our- 
selves to  them  gives  to  us  the  glorious  liberty  of 
the  sons  of  God.  The  freedom  of  man,  at  first 
hardly  more  than  caprice,  may  rise  into  the  freedom 
of  obedience,  and  thus  becomes  perfect.  It  begins 
as  a  feeble  instinct,  and  becomes  a  majestic  power. 
...  As  man  allies  himself  with  immortal  truth  and 
infinite  good,  his  powers  expand  till  he  possesses 
the  world.  It  is  by  this  law  that  all  things  work 
together  for  good  to  them  that  love  God. 

DR.  JAMES  FREEMAN  CLARKE. 
87 


JULY 

£111    Weak  is  the  people  —  but  will  grow  beyond 

all  other  — 
Within  thy  holy  arms,  thou  fruitful  victor-Mother  ! 

0  Liberty,  whose  conquering  flag  is  never  furled  — 
Thou  bearest  Him  in  whom  is  centred  all  the 

World. 

VICTOR  HUGO. 

v|jj    Do  I  not  love  thee,  Lord  most  High, 
In  answer  to  thy  love  for  me  ? 

1  seek  no  other  liberty 

But  that  of  being  bound  to  thee. 

My  God,  I  here  protest  to  thee, 
No  other  will  I  have  than  thine ; 
Whatever  thou  hast  given  me 
I  here  again  to  thee  resign. 

IGNATIUS  LOYOLA,  TR.  BY  CASWALL. 

intellect     (Senitta 

)*fo     I  have  given  thee  a  wise  and  an  understanding 

heart.  —  i  KINGS  iii.  1 2. 

God  hath  not  given  us  the  spirit  of  fear ;  but  of 
power,  and  of  love,  and  of  a  sound  mind. 

ii  TIMOTHY  i.  7. 
Gird  up  the  loins  of  your  mind.  —  i  PETER  i.  13. 

jfyi    The  word  Truth,  then,  is  distinctly  a  word  of 

the  intellect.     Whatever  other  elements  may 

enter  in,  however  it  may  enlarge  itself,  and  become 

a  word  of  the  entire  nature,  the  intellectual  element 

88 


JULY 

can  never  be  cast  out  of  it.  He  whose  favorite 
word  is  truth  must  be  a  man  who  values  intellectual 
life,  who  is  not  satisfied  unless  his  own  intellect  is 
living,  and  who  conceives  of  his  fellow-men  as  be- 
ings in  whom  the  intellect  is  an  important  and  val- 
uable part.  This  must  belong  to  any  habitual  use 
of  the  word  at  all ;  and  so,  when  we  find  it  appear- 
ing constantly  upon  the  lips  of  Jesus,  in  the  record 
of  that  one  of  his  disciples  who  understood  Him 
best,  we  feel  that  we  know  this  at  least  about  Him, 
—  that  He  cared  for  the  intellect  of  man,  that  He 
desired  to  exercise  some  influence  upon  it,  that 
He  was  not  satisfied  simply  to  win  man's  affection 
by  his  kindness,  nor  to  govern  man's  will  by  his 
authority,  but  that  He  also  wished  to  persuade 
man's  mind  with  truth.  —  BISHOP  BROOKS. 

To  act  with  a  purpose  is  what  raises  man 
above  the  brutes  ;  to  invent  with  a  purpose,  to 
imitate  with  a  purpose,  is  that  which  distinguishes 
genius  from  the  petty  artists  who  only  invent  to 
invent,  imitate  to  imitate.  Genius  aims  at  work- 
ing on  our  powers  of  desire  and  abhorrence  with 
objects  that  deserve  these  feelings,  and  ever  strives 
to  show  these  objects  in  their  true  light,  in  order 
that  no  false  light  may  lead  us  to  what  we  should 
desire  and  abhor.  The  artist  should  live  with 
steady  purpose  in  the  Whole,  the  Good,  the  Beauti- 
ful. The  fashion  of  this  world  passes,  and  I  would 
fain  occupy  myself  with  that  only  which  constitutes 
abiding  relations.  —  LESSING. 


JULY 

The  higher  the  mind,  it  may  be  taken  as  a  uni- 
versal rule,  the  less  it  will  scorn  that  which 
appears  to  be  small  or  unimportant ;  and  the  rank  of 
a  painter  may  always  be  determined  by  observing 
how  he  uses,  and  with  what  respect  he  views,  the 
minutiae  of  nature.  Greatness  of  mind  is  not  shown 
by  admitting  small  things,  but  by  making  small 
things  great  under  its  influence.  He  who  can  take 
no  interest  in  what  is  small  will  take  false  interest 
in  what  is  great.  —  RUSKIN. 

j»ty  The  greatness  of  intellectual  men  is  imper- 
ceptible to  kings,  to  the  rich,  to  captains,  to 
all  those  carnally  great.  The  greatness  of  Wisdom 
which  is  nowhere  but  in  God  is  imperceptible  both 
to  the  carnal  and  to  the  intellectual.  There  are 
three  orders  differing  in  kind.  Great  geniuses 
have  their  empire,  their  renown,  their  greatness, 
their  victory,  and  their  lustre,  and  have  no  need  of 
material  grandeurs,  with  which  they  have  no  rela- 
tion. The  saints  have  their  empire,  their  renown, 
their  victory,  their  lustre,  and  have  no  need  of 
material  or  intellectual  grandeurs,  with  which  they 
have  no  relation,  for  they  neither  add  to  them  nor 
take  from  them.  They  are  seen  of  God  and  angels, 
and  not  by  body  and  curious  intellect.  God  is 
sufficient  for  them.  —  PASCAL. 

j££    Every  individual  nature  has  its  own  beauty. 
There  is  no  face,  no  form,  which  one  cannot 
in  fancy  associate  with  great  power  of  intellect  or 
with  generosity  of  soul.  —  EMERSON. 
90 


JULY 

j*j*|    In  some  the  genius  is  a  thing  apart, 

A  pillared  hermit  of  the  brain, 
Hoarding  with  incommunicable  art 
Its  intellectual  gain. 

His  nature  brooked  no  lonely  lair, 

But  basked  and  burgeoned  in  co-partnery, 

Companionship  and  open-windowed  glee. 

And  God  to  him  was  very  God, 

And  not  a  visionary  wraith 

Skulking  in  murky  corners  of  the  mind ; 

And  he  was  sure  to  be 
Somehow,  somewhere,  imperishable  as  He, 
Not  with  His  essence  mystically  combined, 
As  some  high  spirits  long,  but  whole  and  free, 

A  perfected  and  conscious  Agassiz. 

LOWELL. 


of  g>in 

If  thy  hand  offend  thee,  cut  it  off. 

S.  MARK  ix.  43. 

Therefore  to  him  that  knoweth  to  do  good,  and 
doeth  it  not,  to  him  it  is  sin.  —  s.  JAMES  iv.  17. 

And  when  the  blood  of  thy  martyr  Stephen  was 
shed,  I  also  was  standing  by,  and  consenting  unto 
his  death.  —  ACTS  xxii.  20. 

Why  stand  ye  here  all  the  day  idle  ? 

S.  MATTHEW  XX.  6. 

91 


JULY 

One  sin  involves  another,  and  forever  an- 
other, by  a  fatal  parthenogenesis,  and  the 
key  which  unlocks  forbidden  doors  to  our  will  or 
passion  leaves  a  stain  on  the  hand,  that  may  not  be 
as  dark  as  blood,  but  that  will  not  out;  the  per- 
petual silt  of  some  one  weakness,  the  eddies  of  a 
suspicious  temper  depositing  their  one  impalpable 
layer  after  another,  may  build  up  a  shoal  on  which 
an  heroic  life  and  an  otherwise  magnanimous  na- 
ture may  bilge  and  go  to  pieces.  —  LOWELL. 

)*£tS)  I  do  not  know  of  anything  in  the  world 
which  requires  so  many  precautions  as  love ; 
for  the  affection  by  its  very  nature  penetrates  the 
soul  and  takes  possession  of  all  its  faculties,  and 
thus  the  soul  is  easily  carried  away  by  a  thousand 
digressions  into  deplorable  excesses. 

S.  ANGELA  OF  FOLIGNE. 

Jtjfy    Remember  that  falls  are  not  always  by  the 
grosser  sins  which  the  world  takes  count  of, 
but  by  spiritual  sins,  subtle  and  secret,  which  leave 
no  stain  upon  the  outward  life. 

CARDINAL  MANNING. 

"  To  him  that  knoweth  to  do  good,  and  doeth 
it  not,  to  him  it  is  Sin."  Which  of  us  can 
meet  this  test  ?  Who  orders  his  life  according  to 
this  rule  ?  Who  distributes  his  time  in  obedience 
to  this  law?  Who  expends  his  means,  that  por- 
tion of  them  which  he  holds  himself  free  to  spend, 
and  does  spend  on  things  not  necessaries,  according 
92 


JULY 

to  the  suggestions  of  this  spirit  ?  How  much  of 
obvious  good  do  we  all  know,  to  which  we  contrib- 
ute nothing  of  effort,  sacrifice,  prayer,  or  thought 
to  bring  it  forth  into  life  and  being  !  How  many 
gracious  and,  in  this  suffering  world,  most  needful 
things  has  God's  spirit  suggested  to  our  hearts  as 
good,  holy,  and  useful,  things  that  clearly  ought  to 
be  done,  and  yet  the  suggestion  received  no  enter- 
tainment from  our  souls  ;  we  turned  to  our  own 
ways  and  dismissed  it  to  forgetfulness !  How 
much  do  we  know  that  would  be  good  —  good  for 
our  own  souls,  good  for  those  near  to  us  as  our  own 
souls,  good  for  the  world  —  which,  being  within  our 
power,  we  yet  neither  do,  nor  mean  to  do ! 

DR.  J.  H.  THOM. 

My  friends,  the  angry  words  of  God's  book 
are  very  merciful  —  they  are  meant  to  drive 
us  home  ;  but  the  tender  words,  they  are  sometimes 
terrible.  Notice  these,  the  tenderest  words  of  the 
tenderest  prayer  that  ever  came  from  the  lips  of  a 
blessed  martyr,  —  the  dying  words  of  the  holy  Saint 
Stephen  :  "  Lord,  lay  not  this  sin  to  their  charge." 
Is  there  nothing  dreadful  in  that?  Read  it  thus: 
"  Lord,  lay  not  this  sin  to  their  charge.'7  Not  to  the 
charge  of  them  who  stoned  him  ?  To  whose  charge 
then  ?  Go,  ask  the  holy  Saint  Paul.  Three  years 
afterward,  praying  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  he 
answered  that  question :  "  I  stood  by  and  con- 
sented." He  answered  for  himself  only;  but  the 
Day  must  come  when  all  that  wicked  council  that 
sent  Saint  Stephen  away  to  be  stoned,  and  all  that 
93 


JULY 

city  of  Jerusalem,  must  hold  up  the  hand  and  say, 
We  also,  Lord,  —  we  stood  by  !  Ah,  friends,  under 
the  simpler  meaning  of  that  dying  saint's  prayer  for 
the  pardon  of  his  murderers  is  hidden  the  terrible 
truth  that  we  all  have  a  share  in  one  another's  sins. 

G.  w.  CABLE. 

We  must  be  watchful,  especially  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  temptation :  for  the  enemy  is 
then  more  easily  overcome,  if  he  be  not  suffered  to 
enter  the  door  of  our  hearts,  but  be  resisted  with- 
out the  gate  at  his  first  knock.  —  A  KEMPIS. 

Wi$  The  moral  office  of  tragedy  is  to  show  us  our 
own  weaknesses  idealized  in  grander  figures 
and  more  awful  results,  to  teach  us  that  what  we 
pardon  in  ourselves  as  venial  faults,  if  they  seem  to 
have  but  slight  influence  on  our  immediate  fortunes, 
have  arms  as  long  as  those  of  kings,  and  reach  for- 
ward to  the  catastrophe  of  our  lives ;  that  they  are 
dry-rotting  the  very  fibre  of  will  and  conscience,  so 
that  if  we  should  be  brought  to  the  test  of  a  great 
temptation,  or  a  stringent  emergency,  we  must  be 
involved  in  a  ruin  as  sudden  and  complete  as  that 
we  shudder  at  in  the  unreal  scene  of  the  theatre. 

LOWELL. 

jfl*j*    The  lost  days  of  my  life  until  to-day, 

What  were  they,  could   I   see  them  on  the 

street 

Lie  as  they  fell  ?     Would  they  be  ears  of  wheat 
Sown  once  for  food,  but  trodden  into  clay  ? 
94 


JULY 

Or  golden  coins  squandered,  and  still  to  pay? 
Or  drops  of  blood  dabbling  the  guilty  feet  ? 
Or  such  spilt  water  as  in  dreams  must  cheat 
The  throats  of  men  in  hell,  who  thirst  alway  ? 

I  do  not  see  them  here ;  but  after  death, 
God  knows,  I  know  the  faces  I  shall  see, 
Each  one  a  murdered  self,  with  low  last  breath. 
"  I  am  thyself,  —  what  hast  thou  done  to  me  ? " 
"  And  I  —  and  I  —  thyself  (lo  !  each  one  saith), 
And  thou  thyself,  to  all  eternity." 

DANTE   ROSSETTI. 

The  sinfulness  of  sin  consists  not  only  in  the 
specific  evil  of  each  particular  act,  but  in  the 
whole  of  our  case  before  God ;  in  our  relation  to 
Him,  His  holiness,  compassion,  and  long-suffering ; 
in  His  dealings  with  us,  and  our  ingratitude,  cold- 
ness, insensibility,  in  return. 

CARDINAL  MANNING. 

95 


FOR   THE   MONTH   OF 
AUGUST 


animals 

/^\UT  of  the  ground  the  Lord  God  formed  every 
^??     beast  of  the  field  and  every  fowl  of  the  air. 

GENESIS  ii.  Ip. 

Who  provideth  for  the  raven  his  food. 

JOB  xxxviii.  41. 

Doth  the  hawk  fly  by  thy  wisdom  ?  —  JOB  xxxix.  26. 
Doth  the  eagle  mount  up  at  thy  command  ? 

JOB  xxxix.  27. 

Every  beast  of  the  forest  is  mine,  and  the  cattle 
upon  a  thousand  hills.  —  PSALM  1.  10. 

II  Can  anything  be  more  marvellous  or  startling, 
unless  we  were  used  to  it,  than  that  we  should 
have  a  race  of  beings  about  us  whom  we  do  but  see, 
and  as  little  know  their  state,  or  can  describe  their 
interests  or  their  destiny,  as  we  can  tell  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  sun  and  moon  ?  It  is  indeed  a  very 
overpowering  thought,  when  we  get  to  fix  our  minds 
on  it,  that  we  familiarly  use,  I  may  say  hold,  inter- 
course with  creatures  who  are  as  much  strangers  to 

96 


AUGUST 

us,  as  mysterious,  as  if  they  were  the  fabulous, 
unearthly  beings,  more  powerful  than  man,  and  yet 
his  slaves,  which  Eastern  superstitions  have  invent- 
ed. We  have  more  real  knowledge  about  the 
Angels  than  about  the  brutes.  They  have  appar- 
ently passions,  habits,  and  a  certain  accountable- 
ness,  but  all  is  mystery  about  them.  We  do  not 
know  whether  they  can  sin  or  not,  whether  they  are 
under  punishment,  whether  they  are  to  live  after 
this  life.  We  inflict  very  great  sufferings  on  a 
portion  of  them,  and  they  in  turn,  every  now  and 
then,  seem  to  retaliate  upon  us,  as  if  by  a  wonderful 
law.  We  depend  upon  them  in  various  important 
ways  ;  we  use  their  labor,  we  eat  their  flesh. 

CARDINAL  NEWMAN. 

lit    I  heard  the  wild  beasts  in  the  woods   com- 
plain ; 

Some  slept,  while  others  wakened  to  sustain 
Through  night  and  day  the  sad  monotonous  round, 
Half  savage  and  half  pitiful  the  sound. 

The  outcry  rose  to  God  through  all  the  air, 
The  worship  of  distress,  an  animal  prayer, 
Loud  vehement  pleadings,  not  unlike  to  those 
Job  uttered  in  his  agony  of  woes. 

The  beasts  of  burden  linger  on  their  way, 
Like  slaves  who  will  not  speak  when  they  obey ; 
Their  faces,  when  their  looks  to  us  they  raise, 
With  something  of  reproachful  patience  gaze. 

FABER. 

97 


AUGUST 

|j)    Only  a  fallen  horse  stretched  out  there  on  the 

road, 
Stretched  in  the  broken  shafts,  and  crushed  by  the 

heavy  load  ; 

Only  a  fallen  horse,  and  a  circle  of  wondering  eyes 
Watching  the  'frighted  teamster  goading  the  beast 
to  rise. 

Hold !  for  his  toil  is  over —  no  more  labor  for  him ; 

See  the  poor  neck  outstretched,  and  the  patient 
eyes  grow  dim ; 

See  on  the  friendly  stones  how  peacefully  rests  the 
head  — 

Thinking,  if  dumb  beasts  think,  how  good  it  is  to 
be  dead ; 

After  the  weary  journey,  how  restful  it  is  to  lie 

With  the  broken  shafts  and  the  cruel  load  —  wait- 
ing only  to  die. 

Watchers,  he  died  in  harness  —  died  in  the  shafts 

and  straps  — 
Fell,  and  the  burden  killed  him ;  one  of  the  day's 

mishaps  — 
One   of  the  passing  wonders    marking    the   city 

road  — 
A  toiler  dying  in  harness,  heedless  of  call  or  goad. 

JOHN  BOYLE  O'REILLY. 

fo     He  whose  tender  mercies  are  over  all  his  works 

hath  placed  a  principle   in  the  human  mind, 

which  incites  to  exercise  goodness  towards  every 

living  creature ;  and  this  being  singly  attended  to, 

98 


AUGUST 

people  become  tender-hearted  and  sympathizing; 
but  when  frequently  and  totally  rejected,  the  mind 
becomes  shut  up  in  a  contrary  disposition. 

JOHN  WOOLMAN. 

fo{    Both  Man  and  Woman  wept  when  Thou  wert 

dead ; 

Not  only  for  a  thousand  thoughts  that  were 
Old  household  thoughts,  in  which  thou  hadst  thy 

share ; 

But  for  some  precious  boons  vouchsafed  to  thee, 
Found  scarcely  anywhere  in  like  degree ! 
For  love,  that  comes  to  all  —  the  holy  sense, 
Best  gift  of  God  —  in  thee  was  most  intense  ; 
A  chain  of  heart,  a  feeling  of  the  mind, 
A  tender  sympathy,  which  did  thee  bind 
Not  only  to  us  Men,  but  to  thy  Kind : 
Yea,  for  thy  Fellow-brutes  in  thee  we  saw 
The  soul  of  Love,  Love's  intellectual  law  :  — 
Hence,  if  we  wept,  it  was  not  done  in  shame ; 
Our  tears  from  passion  and  from  reason  came, 
And,  therefore,  shalt  thou  be  an  honored  name  ! 

WORDSWORTH. 

foil    Plato,  anticipating  the  reviewers, 

From  his  republic  banished  without  pity 
The  poets :  in  this  little  town  of  yours, 

You  put  to  death,  by  means  of  a  committee, 
The  ballad-singers  and  the  troubadours, 

The  street-musicians  of  the  heavenly  city, 
The  birds,  who  make  sweet  music  for  us  all 
In  our  dark  hours,  as  David  did  for  Saul. 
99 


AUGUST 

How  can  I  teach  your  children  gentleness, 
And  mercy  to  the  weak,  and  reverence 

For  Life,  which,  in  its  weakness  or  excess, 
Is  still  a  gleam  of  God's  omnipotence, 

Or  Death,  which,  seeming  darkness,  is  no  less 
The  selfsame  light,  although  averted  hence, 

When  by  your  laws,  your  actions,  and  your  speech, 

You  contradict  the  very  things  I  teach  ? 

LONGFELLOW. 


There  is  sorrow  on  the  sea;   it  cannot  be 
quiet.  —  JEREMIAH  xlix.  23. 
But  the  wicked  are  like  the  troubled  sea,  when  it 
cannot  rest.  —  ISAIAH  Ivii.  20. 

And  I  saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  :  for 
the  first  heaven  and  the  first  earth  were  passed 
away  ;  and  there  was  no  more  sea.  —  REVELATION 
xxi.  I. 

(jp  To  one  familiar  with  the  aspects  of  the  sea,  and 
yet  not  so  familiar  with  them  as  to  make  them 
commonplace,  —  to  such  an  one  the  sea  is  perhaps 
the  most  impressive  part  of  the  creation.  There  is 
nothing  in  nature,  except  perhaps  the  evening  sky, 
that  gives  such  an  impression  of  infinity  as  the 
ocean.  To  the  eye,  and  almost  to  the  imagination, 
it  is  boundless.  To  the  plummet,  it  is  unfathom- 
able. Its  depths  are  secret  and  mysterious.  And 
the  power  which  the  sea  exhibits  deepens  this  feel- 
ing of  infinity.  The  sea,  ever  moving,  never  resting, 


AUGUST 

heaving  every  moment  from  its  foundations,  and 
sending  its  huge  tidal  waves,  as  by  one  act,  around 
the  globe,  —  one  hour  so  tranquil  and  beneficent, 
and  the  next  a  devouring  monster,  —  to-day  bearing 
the  navies  of  the  earth  gently  upon  its  friendly 
bosom,  and  to-morrow,  it  may  be,  ready  to  wrench 
them  to  pieces  by  its  violence,  —  it  is,  as  it  were,  a 
living  omnipotence,  —  the  visible  type  of  Almighty 
power,  put  forth  in  sensible  reality. 

DR.   GEORGE  PUTNAM. 

P    Behold  the  Sea, 

The  opaline,  the  plentiful,  the  strong, 
Yet  beautiful  as  is  the  rose  in  June. 
Sea  full  of  food,  the  nourisher  of  kinds, 
Purger  of  earth,  and  medicine  of  men  ; 
Creating  a  sweet  climate  by  my  breath, 
Washing  out  harms  and  griefs  from  memory, 
And  in  my  mathematic  ebb  and  flow, 
Giving  a  hint  of  that  which  changes  not. 

EMERSON. 

£1    Trust  to  the  guiding  god,  follow  the  silent  sea ; 
Were  shore  not  yet  there,  'twould  now  arise 

•from  the  wave  ; 

For 'Nature  is  to  Genius  linked  eternally, 
And  ever  will  perform  the  promise  Genius  gave. 

SCHILLER. 

j*(j    Hence  in  a  season  of  calm  weather, 

Though  inland  far  we  be, 
Our  souls  have  sight  of  that  immortal  sea 
101 


AUGUST 

Which  brought  us  hither, 

Can  in  a  moment  travel  thither, 
And  see  the  children  sport  upon  the  shore, 
And  hear  the  mighty  waters  rolling  evermore. 

WORDSWORTH. 

fill    Yes,  in  the  sea  of  life  en-isl'd 

With  echoing  straits  between  us  thrown 
Dotting  the  shoreless  watery  wild 
We  mortal  millions  live  alone. 
The  islands  feel  the  enclasping  flow, 
And  then  their  endless  bounds  they  know. 

Who  ordered  that  their  longing's  fire 
Should  be  as  soon  as  kindled,  cooled  ? 
Who  renders  vain  their  deep  desire  ? 
A  God,  a  God  their  severance  ruled ; 
And  bade  betwixt  their  shores  to  be 
The  unplumbed,  salt,  estranging  sea. 

MATTHEW  ARNOLD. 

jpjt)    Rocked  in  the  cradle  of  the  deep, 
I  lay  me  down  in  peace  to  sleep ; 
Secure  I  rest  upon  the  wave, 
For  thou,  O  Lord  !  hast  power  to  save. 

I  know  thou  wilt  not  slight  my  call ; 
For  thou  dost  mark  the  sparrow's  fall ! 
And  calm  and  peaceful  is  my  sleep, 
Rocked  in  the  cradle  of  the  deep. 
102 


AUGUST 

In  ocean  caves  still  safe  with  thee 
The  germs  of  immortality  : 
So,  calm  and  peaceful  is  my  sleep, 
Rocked  in  the  cradle  of  the  deep. 

EMMA  WILLARD. 


£J)    I  was  in  the  Spirit  on  the  Lord's  day,  and 
heard  behind  me  a  great  voice,  as  of  a  trum- 

pet. —  REVELATION  i.  IO. 

I  was  in  the  city  of  Joppa  praying  :  and  in  a 
trance  I  saw  a  vision.  —  ACTS  xi.  5. 

For  the  prophecy  came  not  in  old  time  by  the 
will  of  man  :  but  holy  men  of  God  spake  as  they 
were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  —  n  PETER  i.  21. 

jftl  One  acted  upon  by  the  first  is,  indeed,  rapt 
out  of  himself  ;  he  is  in  the  Spirit,  he  is  in 
an  ecstasy,  he  is  very  much  more  than  "  moved  by 
the  Holy  Ghost,"  as  we  have  rendered  it.  ... 
But  then  he  is  not  beside  himself  ;  he  is  lifted 
above,  not  set  beside,  his  everyday  self.  It  is  not 
discord  and  disorder,  but  a  higher  harmony  and  a 
diviner  order,  which  are  introduced  into  his  soul  ;  so 
that  he  is  not  as  one  overborne  in  the  region  of  his 
lower  life  by  forces  stronger  than  his  own,  by  an 
insurrection  from  beneath  ;  but  his  spirit  is  lifted 
out  of  that  region  into  a  clearer  atmosphere,  a 
diviner  day,  than  any  in  which  at  other  times  it  is 
permitted  him  to  breathe.  All  that  he  before  had 
still  remains  his,  only  purged,  exalted,  quickened, 
103 


AUGUST 

by  a  power  higher  than  his  own,  but  yet  not  alien 
to  his  own  ;  for  man  is  most  truly  man  when  he  is 
most  filled  with  the  fulness  of  God. 

ARCHBP.  TRENCH. 

jfyft    Angels  have   talked  with  him,  and  showed 

him  thrones  : 

Ye  knew  him  not  ;  he  was  not  one  of  ye, 
Ye  scorned  him  with  an  undi  seeming  scorn  : 
Ye  could  not  read  the  marvel  in  his  eye, 
The  still  serene  abstraction  :  he  hath  felt 
The  vanities  of  after  and  before  ; 
Albeit,  his  spirit  and  his  secret  heart 
The  stern  experiences  of  converse  lives, 
The  linked  woes  of  many  a  fiery  change 
Had  purified,  and  chastened,  and  made  free. 

TENNYSON. 


I  believe  that  the  writings  of  the  mystics  are 
the  purest  diamonds  of  the  prodigious  trea- 
sure of  humanity.  .  .  .  Mystical  truths  have  over 
ordinary  truths  a  strange  privilege  ;  they  can  neither 
grow  old  nor  die.  .  .  .  It  is  not  only  in  heaven  and 
on  earth,  it  is  especially  in  ourselves,  that  there  are 
more  things  than  all  the  philosophies  can  contain, 
and  as  soon  as  we  are  no  longer  obliged  to  formu- 
late what  there  is  mysterious  in  us,  we  are  more 
profound  than  all  that  has  been  written,  and  greater 
than  all  that  exists.  It  is  unfortunate  for  us,  said 
Carlyle,  if  we  have  in  us  only  what  we  can  express 
and  make  visible.  —  MAURICE  MAETERLINCK. 
104 


AUGUST 

r|p  Gregory  the  Great,  in  the  midst  of  overwhelm- 
ing secular  affairs  in  all  quarters,  had,  never- 
theless, ecstasies  which  delivered  him  for  a  moment 
from  their  weight,  and  transported  him,  by  con- 
templation, into  the  very  midst  of  the  beatitudes  of 
paradise.  As  soon  as  it  was  allowed  him  to  taste 
a  few  hours  of  solitude,  celestial  visions  came  to  re- 
fill and  refresh  his  soul.  These  supernatural  graces 
made  no  change  in  the  humility  which  was,  as  it 
were,  the  foundation  of  his  being,  and  never  slack- 
ened his  efforts  to  merit  Heaven. 

MONTALEMBERT. 

j££  Do  you  believe  in  the  mutual  penetration  of 
minds  ?  Do  you  believe  that,  independent  of 
word  and  voice,  independent  of  distance,  from  one 
end  of  the  world  to  the  other,  minds  can  influence 
and  penetrate  one  another  ?  Do  you  believe,  as 
Fdnelon  says,  that  in  God  all  men  meet  ?  Do  you  be- 
lieve that  a  thought,  a  movement,  a  love,  an  impulse, 
can  reach  you  by  the  secret  influence  of  the  heart 
and  mind  of  another  ?  Or  rather  do  you  not  know 
that  every  soul  continually  lives  by  the  movement 
of  other  souls,  resists,  yields  to,  agrees  perpetually 
with  them  ?  Do  you  not  know  that  a  soul  can  feel 
within  it  another  soul  which  touches  it  ?  If  you 
do  not  know  this,  you  do  not  know  the  everyday 
things  of  earth ;  how,  then,  can  you  comprehend 
the  things  of  heaven  ?  —  PERE  GRATRY. 

£j*j     Sometimes  on  lonely  mountain-meres 
I  find  a  magic  bark ; 
105 


AUGUST 

I  leap  on  board :  no  helmsman  steers : 

I  float  till  all  is  dark. 
A  gentle  sound,  an  awful  light ! 

Three  angels  bear  the  holy  Grail : 
With  folded  feet,  in  stoles  of  white, 

On  sleeping  wings  they  sail. 
Ah,  blessed  vision  !  blood  of  God  ! 

My  spirit  beats  her  mortal  bars, 
As  down  dark  tides  the  glory  slides, 

And  star-like  mingles  with  the  stars. 

TENNYSON. 

Kit!)  anU  Poor 

I  was  a  father  to  the  poor.  —  JOB  xxix.  16. 
Both  low  and  high,  rich  and  poor  together. 
PSALM  xlix.  2. 

The  cares  of  this  world  and  the  deceitfulness  of 
riches.  —  s.  MARK  iv.  19. 

The  rich  he  hath  sent  empty  away. 

s.  LUKE  i.  53. 

Only  Christ  the  Saviour  is  able  to  create  the 
synthesis  of  the  neighbor  and  the  enemy. 
He  is  the  God-Man,  and  in  Him  extremes  meet  and 
are  transformed,  —  love  and  hate,  purity  and  sin, 
faith  and  knowledge,  spirit  and  matter.  In  His 
presence  the  divisions  and  antagonisms  that  em- 
bitter and  poison  life  die  away.  He  is  not  the  Sav- 
iour of  the  Jew  or  the  Gentile,  of  the  Greek  or  the 
barbarian,  of  the  freeman  or  the  slave,  but  of  man 
simply.  The  love  and  mercy  which  bowed  the 
106 


AUGUST 

heavens  and  brought  Him  down  were  wide  and 
deep  as  humanity.  In  Heaven  is  the  Father  of  all, 
and  on  earth  all  men  are  brothers. 

BISHOP  SPALDING. 


There  is  no  escaping  the  severity  of  the  Sav- 
iour upon  the  matter  of  wealth  and  poverty. 
Strange  to  say,  to  the  casual  reader  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures,  it  seems  the  one  subject  upon  which 
His  words  always  ring  with  a  terrible  directness 
against  the  trespasser.  The  repentant  thief  —  the 
outcast  who  turned  in  his  misery  upon  the  cross  — 
had  only  to  look  to  be  forgiven.  The  sudden  anger 
of  St.  Peter  and  his  unhappy  denials  of  his  Saviour 
were  made  light  of.  Magdalen  had  but  to  fall  at 
His  feet  to  hear  her  pardon  pronounced.  But 
these  rich,  who  know  not  their  brothers,  how  re- 
lentlessly does  He  always  speak  to  them  ! 

"Woe  to  you  that  are  rich,  for  you  have  your 
consolation."  "Woe  to  you  that  are  filled."  And 
again  he  said,  "Go  to,  now,  ye  rich  men  —  weep 
and  howl  in  your  miseries,  which  shall  come  upon 
you."  "  I  was  hungry,  and  you  gave  me  not  to  eat." 

DR.  J.  BRISBEN  WALKER. 

Don  Diego  de  Ordonez 

Sallied  forth  in  front  of  all, 
And  shouted  forth  his  challenge 
To  the  warders  on  the  wall. 
All  the  people  of  Zamora, 
Both  the  born  and  the  unborn, 
107 


AUGUST 

As  traitors  did  he  challenge 
With  taunthig  words  of  scorn. 

The  living  in  their  houses, 
And  in  their  graves  the  dead  ! 
And  the  waters  of  their  rivers, 
And  their  wine  and  oil  and  bread ! 
There  is  a  greater  army 
That  besets  us  round  with  strife, 
A  starving,  numberless  army, 
At  all  the  gates  of  life. 

For  within  there  is  light  and  plenty, 

And  odors  fill  the  air ; 

But  without  there  is  cold  and  darkness, 

And  hunger  and  despair. 

And  there  in  the  camp  of  famine, 

In  wind  and  cold  and  rain, 

Christ,  the  great  Lord  of  the  army, 

Lies  dead  upon  the  plain. 

LONGFELLOW. 

Creation  was  divine  kindness.  This  is  an 
honorable  genealogy  for  kindness.  Then, 
again,  kindness  is  the  coming  to  the  rescue  of 
others,  when  they  need  it  and  it  is  in  our  power  to 
supply  what  they  need ;  and  this  is  the  work  of  the 
attributes  of  God  toward  his  creatures.  .  .  .  The 
burden  of  life  presses  heavily  upon  multitudes  of 
the  children  of  men.  It  is  a  yoke,  very  often  of 
such  a  peculiar  nature  that  familiarity,  instead  of 
practically  lightening  it,  makes  it  harder  to  bear. 
108 


AUGUST 

There  are  many  men  to  whom  life  is  always  ap- 
proaching the  unendurable.  It  stops  only  just 
short  of  it.  ...  There  are  some  men  whose  prac- 
tical talents  are  completely  swamped  by  the  keen- 
ness of  their  sense  of  injustice.  .  .  .  What  is  our 
life  ?  It  is  a  mission  to  go  into  every  corner  it  can 
reach,  and  reconquer  for  God's  beatitude  his  un- 
happy world  back  to  him.  —  FABER. 

To  see  their  fellow-creatures  under  difficul- 
ties to  which  they  are  in  no  degree  acces- 
sory tends  to  awaken  tenderness  in  the  minds  of  all 
reasonable  people  ;  but  if  we  consider  the  condi- 
tion of  those  who  are  depressed  in  answering  our 
demands,  who  labor  for  us  out  of  our  sight  while 
we  pass  our  time  in  fulness,  and  consider  also  that 
much  less  than  we  demand  would  supply  us  with 
things  really  useful,  what  heart  will  not  relent,  or 
what  reasonable  man  can  refrain  from  mitigating 
that  grief  of  which  he  himself  is  the  cause,  when 
he  may  do  so  without  inconvenience  ? 

JOHN  WOOLMAN. 


Under  the  smooth  surface  of  wealth  and/ 
easy  manners,  there  may  be  more  of  that 
known  violation  of  Right  which  constitutes  sin, 
more  of  what  corrupts  man's  nature,  of  impure 
thoughts,  of  mean  ambitions,  of  low  cares,  of  sickly 
desires,  of  worthless  interests.  It  is  extremely 
difficult  to  judge  of  the  amount  of  wrong  that  at- 
taches to  any  case.  .  .  .  And  even  supposing  actual 
109 


AUGUST 

sin  in  the  case  of  the  exposed  man,  still  judgment 
on  it  proceeding  from  us  may  be  a  condemnation 
of  ourselves.  What  should  we  have  been  in  his 
place  ?  What  was  his  education  ?  What  sounds 
and  sights  greeted  his  young  sense  ?  What  were 
his  parents  ?  .  .  .  Shall  sin  in  him  be  weighed  in 
the  same  scales  as  sin  in  us  ?  Or  shall  our  respect- 
abilities entitle  us  before  God  to  as  high  a  place  as 
he  may  win,  notwithstanding  actual  sins  ?  When 
opportunities  are  compared,  who  will  be  certain  as 
to  the  balance  of  merit  ?  A  saint's  life  in  one  man 
may  be  less  than  common  honesty  in  another. 

DR.  J.  H.  THOM. 

Islam,  like  any  great  Faith  and  insight  into 
the  essence  of  man,  is  a  perfect  equalizer  of 
men :  the  soul  of  one  believer  outweighs  all  earthly 
kingships  ;  all  men,  according  to  Islam  too,  are 
equal.  Mahomet  insists  not  on  the  propriety  of 
giving  alms,  but  on  the  necessity  of  it :  he  marks 
down  by  law  how  much  you  are  to  give,  and  it  is  at 
your  peril  if  you  neglect.  The  tenth  part  of  a 
man's  annual  income,  whatever  that  may  be,  is  the 
property  of  the  poor,  of  those  that  are  afflicted  and 
need  help.  —  CARLYLE. 

]£j£P    First,  have  you  observed  that  all  Christ's 
main  teaching,  by  direct  order,  by  earnest  par- 
able, and  by  his  own  permanent  emotion,  regards  the 
use  and  misuse  of  money  ?  We  might  have  thought, 
if  we  had  been  asked  what  a  divine  teacher  was 
no 


AUGUST 

most  likely  to  teach,  that  he  would  have  left  infe- 
rior persons  to  give  directions  about  money ;  and 
himself  spoken  only  concerning  faith  and  love,  and 
the  discipline  of  the  passions,  and  the  guilt  of  the 
crimes  of  soul  against  soul.  But  not  so.  He  speaks 
in  general  terms  of  these.  But  he  does  not  speak 
parables  about  them  for  all  men's  memory,  in  all 
men's  sight.  The  Pharisees  bring  Him  an  adulter- 
ess. He  writes  her  forgiveness  on  the  dust  of 
which  He  had  formed  her.  Another,  despised  of 
all  for  known  sin,  He  recognized  as  a  giver  of  un- 
known love.  .  .  .  The  two  most  intense  of  all  the 
parables,  the  two  which  lead  the  rest  in  love  and 
in  terror  (that  of  the  Prodigal,  and  of  Dives)  relate, 
both  of  them,  to  management  of  riches.  The  prac- 
tical order  given  to  the  only  seeker  of  advice,  of 
whom  it  is  recorded  that  Christ  "  loved  him,"  is 
briefly  about  his  property.  "  Sell  that  thou  hast." 
And  the  arbitrament  of  the  day  of  The  Last  Judg- 
ment is  made  to  rest  wholly,  neither  on  belief  in 
God,  nor  in  any  spiritual  virtue  in  man,  nor  on  free- 
dom from  stress  of  stormy  crime,  but  on  this  only : 
"  I  was  an  hungered,  and  ye  gave  me  drink  ;  naked, 
and  ye  clothed  me ;  sick,  and  ye  came  unto  me." 

RUSKIN. 

Oh,  strange  and  sad  and  fatal  thing, 
When  in  the  rich  man's  gorgeous  hall, 

The  huge  fire  on  the  hearth  doth  fling 

A  light  on  some  great  festival, 
in 


AUGUST 

To  see  the  drunkard  smile  in  state, 
In  purple  wrapt,  with  myrtle  crowned, 
While  Jesus  lieth  at  the  gate 
With  only  rags  to  wrap  him  round. 

VICTOR  HUGO. 

112 


FOR  THE  MONTH  OF 
SEPTEMBER 


9 


T  HAVE  been  young  and  now  am  old. 

PSALM  xxxvii.  25. 

Great  men  are  not  always  wise  :  neither  do  the 
aged  understand  judgment.  —  JOB  xxxii.  9. 

II  How  beautiful  and  grand  an  object  is  the 
stately  ship  coming  into  her  port  !  She  furls  her 
sails  and  is  made  fast  to  her  moorings,  and  rests 
upon  her  graceful  shadow.  How  has  she  strug- 
gled and  labored  !  What  forces  has  she  resisted, 
and  what  dangers  eluded  !  She  has  not  shut  her 
watchful  eye  one  moment  day  or  night,  for  so 
long.  She  has  carried  well  what  was  committed 
to  her.  She  has  brought  what  was  expected,  and 
kept  sacred  the  charge  of  life  and  treasure  with 
which  she  was  intrusted.  It  is  an  imposing  and  a 
lovely  sight.  But  there  is  one  other  spectacle  that 
in  beauty,  grandeur,  and  joy  transcends  that  as 
far  as  the  spiritual  transcends  the  material,  and 
eternity  exceeds  time.  It  is  the  life  voyage  of  man 
113 


SEPTEMBER 

completed  in  success  and  safety.  The  toil  is  over  and 
the  danger  past,  —  the  secure  and  peaceful  haven 
reached,  the  spirit's  haven  of  repose,  —  the  end  of 
cares,  the  end  of  pains,  the  tranquil  rest  of  the  even- 
ing hour  of  a  good  life  passing  gently  through  the 
twilight  into  the  night  of  death,  and  the  brighter 
dawning  of  the  eternal  day,  where  is  rest  and  joy 
for  evermore.  —  DR.  GEORGE  PUTNAM. 

Ill  No  one  should  wish  to  see  the  characteristics 
of  one  period  of  life  appear  prematurely  in 
another,  for  they  can  be  anticipated  only  in  an 
unhealthy  form.  A  sweet,  unburdened  childhood ; 
an  active,  disciplined  boyhood  ;  a  studious  or  en- 
terprising youth ;  a  laborious  and  responsible  man- 
hood, full  of  high  trusts,  with  nothing  lost  by  the 
way,  all  the  lower  stages  carrying  their  contributions 
into  all  the  higher,  are  necessary  to  the  perfection 
of  Old  Age,  whose  attribute  is  ripe  wisdom,  large- 
ness of  nature,  when  white  hairs  emblem  the  full 
light  in  which  all  the  colors  of  Experience  blend. 

DR.  J.  H.  THOM. 

lij     Youth  longs  and  manhood  strives,  but  age  re- 
members, 

Sits  by  the  raked-up  ashes  of  the  past, 
Spreads  its  thin  hands  above  the  whitening  embers 
That  warm  its  creeping  life-blood  till  the  last. 

What  though  of  gilded  baubles  he  bereaves  us, 
Dear  to  the  heart  of  youth,  to  manhood's  prime  ; 
114 


SEPTEMBER 

Think  of  the  calm  he  brings,  the  wealth  he  leaves 

us, 
The  hoarded  spoils,  the  legacies  of  time ! 

Altars  once  flaming,  still  with  incense  fragrant, 
Passion's  uneasy  nurslings  rocked  asleep, 
Hope's  anchor  faster,  wild  desire  less  vagrant, 
Life's  flow  less  noisy,  but  the  stream  how  deep ! 

o.  w.  HOLMES. 

{)  The  little  hedgerow  birds, 

That  peck  along  the  road,  regard  him  not. 
He  travels  on,  and  in  his  face,  his  step, 
His  gait,  is  one  expression  ;  every  limb, 
His  look  and  bending  figure,  all  bespeak 
A  man  who  does  not  move  with  pain,  but  moves 
With  thought.  —  He  is  insensibly  subdued 
To  settled  quiet :  he  is  one  by  whom 
All  effort  seems  forgotten  ;  one  to  whom 
Long  patience  hath  such  mild  composure  given, 
That  patience  now  doth  seem  a  thing  of  which 
He  hath  no  need.     He  is  by  nature  led 
To  peace  so  perfect,  that  the  young  behold 
With  envy,  what  the  Old  Man  hardly  feels. 

WORDSWORTH. 

fol     This  laborer  that  is  gone 

Was  childless  and  alone, 
And  homeless  as  his  Saviour  was  before  him ; 

He  told  in  no  man's  ear 

His  longing,  love,  or  fear, 
Nor  what  he  thought  of  life  as  it  passed  o'er  him. 


SEPTEMBER 

Thus  did  he  live  his  life, 

A  kind  of  passive  strife, 
Upon  the  God  within  his  heart  relying ; 

Men  left  him  all  alone, 

Because  he  was  unknown, 
But  he  heard  the  angels  sing  when  he  was  dying. 

God  judges  by  a  light 

Which  baffles  mortal  sight, 
And  the  useless-seeming  man  the  crown  hath  won : 

In  His  vast  world  above, 

A  world  of  broader  love, 
God  hath  some  grand  employment  for  His  son. 

FABER. 

foil     Rouse  thee,   my  fainting  soul,  and  play  the 

man; 

And  through  such  waning  span 
Of  life  and  thought  as  still  has  to  be  trod, 

Prepare  to  meet  thy  God. 
And  while  the  storm  of  that  bewilderment 

Is  for  a  season  spent, 
And,  ere  afresh  the  ruin  on  me  fall, 

Use  well  the  interval. 

CARDINAL  NEWMAN. 

Skepticism 

folll    O  thou  of  little  faith,  wherefore  didst  thou 

doubt  ? —  S.  MATTHEW  xiv.  $1. 

How  long  dost  thou  make  us  to  doubt  ?     If  thou 
be  the  Christ,  tell  us  plainly.  —  s.  JOHN  x.  24. 
116 


SEPTEMBER 

if  We  cannot  grasp  the  Infinite ;  language  cannot 
express  even  what  we  know  of  the  Divine  Being, 
and  hence  there  remains  a  background  of  dark- 
ness, where  it  is  possible  to  adore  or  to  mock. 
But  religion  dispels  more  mystery  than  it  involves. 
With  it,  there  is  twilight  in  the  world ;  without  it, 
night.  We  are  in  the  world  to  act,  not  to  doubt. 
Distrust  is  the  last  wisdom  a  great  heart  learns,  and 
noble  natures  feel  that  the  generous  view  is,  in  the 
end,  the  true  view.  —  BISHOP  SPALDING. 

jp  Even  Mr.  Lecky  softens  a  little  at  the  thought 
of  the  many  innocent  and  beautiful  beliefs  of 
which  a  growing  skepticism  has  robbed  us  in  the 
decay  of  supernaturalism.  But  we  need  not  de- 
spair; for,  after  all,  skepticism  is  first  cousin  of 
credulity,  and  we  are  not  surprised  to  see  the  tough 
doubter  Montaigne  hanging  up  his  offerings  in  the 
shrine  of  our  Lady  of  Loreto.  Skepticism  com- 
monly takes  up  the  room  left  by  defect  of  imagina- 
tion, and  is  the  very  quality  of  mind  most  likely  to 
seek  for  sensual  proof  of  supersensual  things.  If 
one  came  from  the  dead,  it  could  not  believe ;  and 
yet  it  longs  for  such  a  witness,  and  will  put  up  with 
a  very  dubious  one.  So  long  as  night  is  left  and 
the  helplessness  of  dream,  the  wonderful  will  not 
cease  from  among  men.  —  LOWELL. 

£|    The  farthest  reach  of  reason  is  to  recognize 
that  there  are  an  infinity  of  things  above  it. 
It  must  be  weak  indeed  if  it  does  not  see  thus  far. 

PASCAL. 
117 


SEPTEMBER 

fli  However  we  may  explain  it,  a  rationalistic 
temper  is  a  skeptical  temper,  and  a  skeptical 
temper  undermines  character.  Simple  assent,  not 
reflex  certitude,  is  the  motive  cause  of  great  achieve- 
ments. He  who  would  do  great  things  must  greatly 
hope.  The  creative  epochs  are  invariably  epochs 
in  which  men  believe.  Faith  watches  by  the  cra- 
dle of  nations,  and  criticism  argues  and  doubts  over 
their  graves.  —BISHOP  SPALDING. 

yiil  Skepticism  means  not  intellectual  doubt  alone, 
but  moral  doubt,  all  sorts  of  infidelity,  insin- 
cerity, spiritual  paralysis.  The  battle  of  Belief 
against  Unbelief  is  the  never-ending  battle  !  Skep- 
ticism, for  that  century,  we  must  consider  as  the 
decay  of  old  ways  of  believing,  the  preparation 
afar  off  for  new,  better,  and  wider  ways,  —  an  in- 
evitable thing.  We  will  not  blame  men  for  it,  we 
will  lament  their  hard  fate.  We  will  understand 
that  destruction  of  old  forms  is  not  destruction  of 
everlasting  substances  ;  that  Skepticism,  as  sorrow- 
ful and  hateful  as  we  see  it,  is  not  an  end  but  a  be- 
ginning. —  CARLYLE. 

yij)     "  Though  the  fountains    of  the  great  deep 
should  break  up,  their  waters  will  never  reach 
the  Lord."  .  .  .  Ah,  for  my  own  part,  I  rely,  both 
as  regards   Christianity  and  Christian  art,  on  the 
words  which  the  Church  addresses  to  her  dead : 
"  Whoso  believeth  in  me  cannot  die."   Lord,  Chris- 
tianity has  believed,  has  loved,  has  comprehended 
—  in  it  have  met  God  and  man.     It  may  change  its 
118 


SEPTEMBER 

vestment,  but  perish  never.  It  will  transform  itself 
to  perpetuate  its  life.  One  morning  it  will  show  it- 
self to  those  who  think  they  are  watching  its  tomb 
and  will  rise  again  the  third  day.  —  MICHELET. 

duttliite  ©Science 

£jj    The  obedience  of  faith.  — ROMANS  xvi.  26. 
He  became  obedient  unto  death. 

PHILIPPIANS  ii.  8. 
As  obedient  children.  —  i  PETER  i.  14- 

£i){  It  is  the  character  of  children  we  want,  and 
must  gain  at  our  peril.  Let  us  see,  briefly,  in 
what  it  consists.  The  first  character  of  right  child- 
hood is  that  it  is  Modest.  A  well-bred  child  does 
not  think  it  can  teach  its  parents,  or  that  it  knows 
anything.  Then,  the  second  character  of  right 
childhood  is  to  be  Faithful.  Perceiving  that  its 
father  knows  best  what  is  good  for  it,  and  having 
found  always,  when  it  has  tried  its  own  way  against 
his,  that  he  was  right  and  it  was  wrong,  a  noble 
child  trusts  him  at  last  wholly,  gives  him  its  hand, 
and  will  walk  blindfold  with  him,  if  he  bids  it. 
And  that  is  the  true  character  of  all  good  men  also, 
as  obedient  workers  or  soldiers  under  captains. 
They  must  trust  their  captains  ;  they  are  bound  for 
their  lives  to  choose  none  but  those  whom  they 
can  trust.  Then,  they  are  not  always  to  be  think- 
ing that  what  seems  strange  to  them,  or  wrong  in 
what  they  are  desired  to  do,  is  strange  or  wrong. 
They  know  their  captain :  where  he  leads  they 
119 


SEPTEMBER 

must  follow,  what  he  bids  they  must  do  ;  and  with- 
out this  trust  and  faith,  without  this  captainship 
and  soldiership,  no  great  deed,  no  great  salvation, 
is  possible  to  man.  It  was  a  deed  of  this  absolute 
trust  which  made  Abraham  the  father  of  the 
faithful.  —  RUSKIN. 

jfyit    The  holiness  of  children  is  the  very  type  of 
saintliness  ;    and  the   most  perfect  conver- 
sion is  but  a  hard  and  distant  return  to  the  holi- 
ness of  a  child.  —  CARDINAL  MANNING. 


Nothing  that  happened  to  Joan  of  Arc,  no- 
thing that  she  did,  was  of  her  own  seeking, 
neither  action,  nor  power,  nor  glory.  All  came 
to  her  from  above  —  she  accepted  all  without  hesi- 
tating, without  debating,  without  counting,  as  we 
should  say  now.  She  believed  in  God  and  she 
obeyed  Him.  God  was  not  for  her  an  idea,  a  hope, 
a  light  of  human  imagination,  or  a  problem  of 
human  science  ;  He  was  the  creator  of  the  world, 
the  Saviour  of  the  human  race  by  Jesus  Christ  ;  the 
Being  of  beings,  always  present,  always  active,  the 
only  legitimate  sovereign  of  man  whom  He  has 
made  intelligent  and  free,  the  real  and  true  God 
whom  we  seek  painfully  to-day,  and  whom  we  shall 
find  only  when  we  cease  to  pretend  to  do  without 
Him  and  put  ourselves  in  His  place.  .  .  .  Neither 
our  history  nor  any  other  offers  a  similar  example, 
in  a  modest  human  soul,  of  a  faith  so  pure  and  so 
effectual  in  divine  inspiration  and  in  patriotic  hope. 

GUIZOT, 

120 


SEPTEMBER 

v|£  It  is  quite  indifferent  whether  we  say  a  man 
seeks  God  in  faith,  or  say  he  seeks  Him  by 
obedience ;  and  whereas  Almighty  God  has  gra- 
ciously declared  He  will  receive  and  bless  all  that 
seek  Him,  it  is  quite  indifferent  whether  we  say, 
He  accepts  those  who  believe,  or  those  who  obey. 
To  believe  is  to  look  beyond  this  world  to  God,  and 
to  obey  is  to  look  beyond  this  world  to  God ;  to  be- 
lieve is  of  the  heart,  and  to  obey  is  of  the  heart  ;  to 
believe  is  not  a  solitary  act,  but  a  consistent  habit 
of  trust ;  and  to  obey  is  not  a  solitary  act,  but  a 
consistent  habit  of  doing  our  duty  in  all  things.  I 
do  not  say  that  faith  and  obedience  do  not  stand 
for  separate  ideas  in  our  minds,  but  they  stand  for 
nothing  more ;  they  are  not  divided  one  from  the 
other  in  fact.  They  are  but  one  thing  viewed  dif- 
ferently. ...  To  have  a  habit  of  faith,  and  to  be 
obedient,  are  one  and  the  same  general  character  of 
mind,  —  viewed  as  sitting  at  Jesus'  feet,  it  is  called 
faith  j  viewed  as  running  to  do  His  will,  it  is  called 
obedience.  —  CARDINAL  NEWMAN. 

££  Remember  alway  that  the  things  of  God  must 
be  done  in  God's  way.  .  .  .  Every  duty,  even 
the  least  duty,  involves  the  whole  principle  of  obedi- 
ence ;  and  little  duties  make  the  will  dutiful,  that 
is,  supple  and  prompt  to  obey.  Little  obediences 
lead  into  great.  "  He  that  is  faithful  in  that  which 
is  least  is  faithful  also  in  much." 

CARDINAL  MANNING. 
121 


SEPTEMBER 

)^|     Forth  in  th;  name,  O  Lord,  I  go, 

My  daily  fa   or  to  pursue  ; 
Thee,  only  thee,     .^olved  to  know, 
In  all  I  think,  or  speak,  or  do. 

The  task  thy  wisdom  hath  assigned, 
O,  let  me  cheerfully  fulfil  ; 
In  all  my  works  thy  presence  find, 
And  prove  thine  acceptable  will. 

Thee  may  I  set  at  my  right  hand, 
Whose  eyes  mine  inmost  spirit  see ; 
And  labor  on  at  thy  command, 
And  offer  all  my  works  to  thee. 

C.  WESLEY. 

Jflpstetp 

jflftj    But  we  speak  the  wisdom    of    God  in  a 

mystery.  —  i  CORINTHIANS  ii.  7. 
Behold,  I  show  you  a  mystery. 

I  CORINTHIANS  XV.  51. 

This  is  a  great  mystery  :  but  I  speak  concerning 
Christ  and  the  Church.  —  EPHESIANS  v.  32. 

Men  are  made  quite  as  much  by  their  sense 
of  what  there  is  in  the  world  which  they  do 
not  know,  as  by  the  few  truths  of  which  they  think 
that  they  have  gained  the  mastery.  The  outlook 
into  mystery  has  even  a  stronger  intellectual  influ- 
ence than  the  inspection  of  discovered  fact. 

BISHOP  BROOKS. 
122 


SEPTEMBER 

We  must  be  willing  to  leave  the  world  of 
thought  we  know,  in  order  to  enter  into  the 
unknown  realms  of  His  spirit. 

PERE  DE   CONDREN. 

j£J)  If  God  discovered  himself  continually  to  men, 
there  would  be  no  merit  in  believing  Him  ; 
and  if  He  never  discovered  himself,  there  would  be 
little  faith.  But  He  conceals  himself  ordinarily  and 
discovers  himself  rarely  to  those  whom  He  wishes 
to  engage  in  his  service.  .  .  .  The  veil  of  nature 
that  covers  God  has  been  penetrated  by  some  of 
the  unbelieving,  who,  as  St.  Paul  says,  have  recog- 
nized an  invisible  God  in  visible  nature.  .  .  .  All 
things  cover  some  mystery.  All  things  have  veils 
that  cover  God.  Christians  ought  to  recognize  Him 
in  everything.  Temporal  afflictions  cover  eternal 
goods  to  which  they  lead.  Temporal  joys  cover 
eternal  ills  that  they  cause.  —  PASCAL. 

A  world  which  respects  nothing  but  physical 
facts  and  material  force,  which  turns  away 
from  the  supersensuous,  the  ideal,  the  divine,  as 
a  dream  of  its  childhood,  is  assuredly  doomed  to 
decadence  and  decay.  The  known  and  natural 
cannot  suffice  for  man  as  a  moral  being.  Without 
a  spiritual  horizon,  the  whole  value  of  life,  which  is 
its  ethical  value,  fades  away. 

QUARTERLY  REVIEW. 


The  thrill  of  awe  is,  as  Goethe  says,  the 
best  thing  humanity  has.     We  must  under- 
123 


SEPTEMBER 

stand  and  feel  that  the  visible  is  but  the  shadow  of 
the  invisible,  that  the  soul  has  its  roots  in  God, 
whose  kingdom  is  within  us.  —  BISHOP  SPALDING. 

]L4pt)tti     The  degree  of  vision  that  dwells  in  a  man 
is  the  correct  measure  of  the  man. 

CARLYLE. 

There  are  two  worlds,  "  the  visible  and  the 
invisible,"  —  the  world  we  see,  and  the  world 
we  do  not  see  :  and  the  world  which  we  do  not  see 
as  really  exists  as  the  world  we  do  see.  All  around 
us  are  numberless  objects,  coming  and  going, 
watching,  working,  or  waiting,  which  we  see  not : 
this  is  that  other  world,  which  the  eyes  reach  not 
unto,  but  faith  only.  .  .  .  We  are  then  a  world  of 
spirits,  as  well  as  in  a  world  of  sense,  and  we  hold 
communion  with  it,  and  take  part  in  it,  though  we 
are  not  conscious  of  doing  so.  ...  The  world  of 
spirits,  then,  though  unseen,  is  present ;  present,  not 
future,  not  distant.  It  is  not  above  the  sky,  it  is 
not  beyond  the  grave ;  it  is  now  and  here ;  the 
kingdom  of  God  is  among  us.  ...  Men  think  that 
they  are  lords  of  the  world,  and  may  do  as  they  will. 
They  think  this  earth  their  property,  and  its  move- 
ments in  their  power ;  whereas  it  has  other  lords 
besides  them,  and  is  the  scene  of  a  higher  conflict 
than  they  are  capable  of  conceiving.  It  contains 
Christ's  little  ones  whom  they  despise,  and  His 
Angels  whom  they  disbelieve.  .  .  .  When  the  An- 
gels appeared  to  the  shepherds,  it  was  a  sudden 
124 


SEPTEMBER 

appearance,  —  "  Suddenly  there  was  with  the  Angel 
a  multitude  of  the  heavenly  host." 

CARDINAL  NEWMAN. 

j££j*    A  marvel  seems  the  universe, 
A  miracle  our  life  and  death ; 
A  mystery  I  cannot  pierce, 

Around,  above,  beneath. 

WHITTIER. 

125 


FOR  THE  MONTH   OF 
OCTOBER 


(Entering  into  tfje  labors  of  ©tfjers 

F  SENT  you  to  reap  that  whereon  ye  bestowed  no 
labour ;  other  men  laboured,  and  ye  are  entered 
into  their  labours.  —  s.  JOHN  iv.  38. 

I  have  planted,  Apollos  watered,  but  God  gave 
the  increase.  —  i  CORINTHIANS  iii.  6. 

II  The  multitude  of  men  cannot,  from  the  nature 
of  the  case,  be  distinguished  ;  for  the  very  idea 
of  distinction  is,  that  a  man  stands  out  from  the 
multitude.  They  make  little  noise  and  draw  little 
notice  in  their  narrow  spheres  of  action ;  but  still 
they  have  their  full  proportion  of  personal  worth 
and  even  of  greatness.  Indeed,  every  man  in  every 
condition  is  great.  .  .  .  Perhaps  in  our  presence, 
the  most  heroic  deed  on  earth  is  done  in  some 
silent  spirit,  the  loftiest  purpose  cherished,  the 
most  generous  sacrifice  made,  and  we  do  not  sus- 
pect it.  I  believe  this  greatness  to  be  most  com- 
mon among  the  multitude,  whose  names  are  never 
heard.  —  DR.  CHANNING. 

126 


OCTOBER 

III  Her  finely-touched  spirit  had  still  its  fine  is- 
sues, though  they  were  not  widely  visible. 
Her  full  nature,  like  that  river  of  which  Alexander 
broke  the  strength,  spent  itself  in  channels  which 
had  no  great  name  on  the  earth.  But  the  effect  of 
her  being  on  those  around  her  was  incalculably  dif- 
fusive ;  for  the  growing  good  of  the  world  is  partly 
dependent  upon  unhistoric  acts;  and  that  things 
are  not  so  ill  with  you  and  me  as  they  might  have 
been  is  half  owing  to  the  number  who  lived  faith- 
fully a  hidden  life,  and  rest  in  unvisited  tombs. 

GEORGE  ELIOT. 

jfo  We  hear  constantly  and  think  naturally  of  Cima- 
bue  as  of  a  man  whose  peculiar  genius  in  paint- 
ing suddenly  reformed  its  principles;  who  sud- 
denly painted  out  of  his  own  gifted  imagination 
beautiful  instead  of  rude  pictures,  and  taught  his 
scholar  Giotto  to  carry  on  the  impulse.  .  .  .  We 
cannot  overrate  the  power  of  the  men  by  whom 
changes  seem  to  have  been  effected ;  but  we  far  over- 
rate their  influence  because  the  apparently  sudden 
result  of  their  labor  or  invention  is  only  the  mani- 
fested fruit  of  the  toil  and  thought  of  many  who 
preceded  them,  and  of  whose  names  we  have  never 
heard.  The  skill  of  Cimabue  cannot  be  extolled 
too  highly;  but  no  Madonna  by  his  hand  could  ever 
have  rejoiced  the  soul  of  Italy  unless,  for  a  thousand 
years  before,  many  a  nameless  Greek  and  nameless 
Goth  had  adorned  the  traditions  and  lived  in  the 
love  of  the  Virgin.  —  RUSKIN. 
127 


OCTOBER 

jj  It  is  notorious  that  those  who  first  suggest  the 
most  happy  inventions,  and  open  a  way  to  the 
secret  stores  of  nature,  —  those  who  weary  them- 
selves in  the  search  after  Truth,  who  strike  out 
momentous  principles  of  action,  who  painfully  force 
upon  their  contemporaries  the  adoption  of  beneficial 
measures,  or,  again,  who  are  the  original  cause  of 
the  chief  events  in  national  history,  are  commonly 
supplanted,  as  regards  celebrity  and  reward,  by  in- 
ferior men.  Their  works  are  not  called  after  them ; 
nor  the  arts  and  systems  which  they  have  given  the 
world.  Their  schools  are  usurped  by  strangers ; 
and  their  maxims  of  wisdom  circulate  among  the 
children  of  their  people,  forming,  perhaps,  a  nation's 
character,  but  not  embalming  in  their  own  immor- 
tality the  names  of  their  original  authors. 

CARDINAL  NEWMAN. 

t)t  In  this  Dante,  had  ten  silent  centuries,  in  a 
very  strange  way,  found  a  voice.  The  Divina 
Commedia  is  of  Dante's  writing;  yet  in  truth  it 
belongs  to  ten  Christian  centuries,  only  the  finish- 
ing of  it  is  Dante's.  The  craftsman  there,  the 
smith  with  that  metal  of  his,  with  these  tools,  with 
these  cunning  methods,  —  how  little  of  all  he  does 
is  properly  his  work !  All  past  inventive  men  work 
there  with  him,  —  as  indeed  with  all  of  us,  in  all 
things.  Dante  is  the  spokesman  of  the  Middle 
Ages ;  the  Thought  they  lived  by  stands  here  in 
everlasting  music.  These  sublime  ideas  of  his, 
terrible  and  beautiful,  are  the  fruit  of  the  Christian 
128 


OCTOBER 

Meditation  of  all  the  good  men  who  had  gone  be- 
fore him.  —  CARLYLE. 

foil    He  came  to  Florence  long  ago, 

And  painted  here  these  walls  that  shone 
For  Raphael  and  for  Angelo, 
With  secrets  deeper  than  his  own  ; 
Then  shrank  into  the  dark  again, 
And  died,  we  know  not  how  or  when. 

Thoughts  that  great  hearts  once  broke  for,  we 
Breathe  cheaply  in  the  common  air ; 
The  dust  we  trample  heedlessly 
Throbbed  once  in  saints  and  heroes  rare, 
Who  perished,  opening  for  their  race 
New  pathways  to  the  commonplace. 

LOWELL. 

©me 

ftlii    And  that,  knowing  the  time,  that  now  it  is 
high  time  to  awake  out  of  sleep. 

ROMANS  xiii.  ii. 

Walk  in  wisdom  toward  them  that  are  without, 
redeeming  the  time.  —  COLOSSIANS  iv.  5. 

Redeeming  the  time,  because  the  days  are  evil. 

EPHESIANS  v.  1 6. 

j£    Work  while  you  have   light,  especially  while 
you  have  the  light  of  morning.  .  .  .  Remem- 
ber that  every  day  of  your  early  life  is  ordaining 
irrevocably,  for  good  or  evil,  the  custom  and  prac- 
129 


OCTOBER 

tice  of  your  soul ;  ordaining  either  sacred  customs 
of  dear  and  lovely  recurrence,  or  trenching  deeper 
and  deeper  the  furrows  for  seed  of  sorrow. 

RUSKIN. 

£  Toward  afternoon  a  person  who  has  nothing  to 
do  drifts  rapidly  away  from  God.  To  sit  down 
in  a  chair  without  an  object  is  to  jump  into  a 
thicket  of  temptations.  A  vacant  hour  is  always 
the  devil's  hour.  When  time  hangs  heavy,  the 
wings  of  the  spirit  flap  painfully  and  slow.  Then 
it  is  that  a  book  is  a  strong  tower,  nay,  a  very- 
church,  with  angels  lurking  among  the  leaves,  as  if 
they  were  so  many  niches.  —  FABER. 

ft  It  is  at  its  source  that  evil  must  be  stopped ; 
even  though  it  may  not  arrive  immediately  at 
its  height,  it  must  not  on  that  account  be  neglected. 
It  will  grow  during  your  sleep ;  it  is  only  a  germ, 
but  if  you  do  not  extirpate  it,  it  will  bring  forth  the 
fruits  of  death.  —  s.  CHRYSOSTOM. 

£11  Beware  how  you  regard  as  trifling  faults  which 
appear  of  but  little  consequence.  An  accu- 
mulation of  small  faults  makes  a  very  large  one  ; 
grains  of  sand,  gathered  together  one  upon  another, 
form  the  bank  on  which  the  vessel  strikes. 

S.  AUGUSTINE. 

Another  year  !  another  year  ! 
The  unceasing  rush  of  time  sweeps  on ; 
130 


OCTOBER 

Whelmed  in  its  surges,  disappear 
Man's  hopes  and  fears,  forever  gone  ! 

O,  what  concerns  it  him  whose  way 
Lies  upward  to  the  immortal  dead, 
That  nearer  comes  the  closing  day, 
That  one  year  more  of  life  has  fled  ? 

Swift  years  !  but  teach  me  how  to  bear, 
To  feel  and  act  with  strength  and  skill, 
To  reason  wisely,  nobly  dare,  — 
And  speed  your  courses  as  you  will. 

ANDREWS  NORTON. 

£jfo  Every  day  in  this  world  has  its  work  ;  and 
every  day  as  it  rises  out  of  eternity  keeps  put- 
ting to  each  of  us  the  question  afresh,  What  will 
you  do  before  to-day  has  sunk  into  eternity  and  no- 
thingness again  ?  And  now  what  have  we  to  say 
with  respect  to  this  strange  solemn  thing  —  time  ? 
That  men  do  with  it  through  life  just  what  the 
apostles  did  for  one  precious  and  irreparable  hour 
of  it  in  the  garden  of  Gethsemane  ;  they  go  to  sleep. 
.  .  .  There  is  no  mistake  about  it ;  there  it  is, 
a  sleep,  a  most  palpable  sleep,  —  self  -  indulged 
unconsciousness  of  high  destinies,  and  God  and 
Christ ;  a  sleep  when  Christ  was  calling  out  to  you 
to  watch  with  Him  one  hour,  —  a  sleep  when  there 
was  something  to  be  done.  .  .  .  Under  no  circum- 
stances, whether  of  pain,  or  grief,  or  disappoint- 
ment, or  irreparable  mistake,  can  it  be  true  that 
there  is  not  something  to  be  done,  as  well  as  some- 


OCTOBER 

thing  to  be  suffered.   There  is  a  Past  which  is  gone 
forever,   but  there  is  a  Future  which  is  still  our 

Own. — F.  W.  ROBERTSON. 

<S00fc  Stronger  tljan  ©toil 

jft    Ye  are  of  God,  little  children,  and  have  over- 
come them :  because  greater  is  he   that  is  in 
you,  than  he  that  is  in  the  world.  —  I  JOHN  iv.  4. 

jfyi    How  indestructibly  the  Good  grows,  and  prop- 
agates itself,  even  among  the  weedy  entan- 
glements of  evil.  —  CARLYLE. 

jpjjll  These  two  ignorant  and  unpolished  people 
had  guided  themselves,  so  far  on  in  their 
journey  of  life,  by  a  religious  sense  of  duty  and 
desire  to  do  right.  Ten  thousand  weaknesses  and 
absurdities  might  have  been  detected  in  the  breasts 
of  both  ;  ten  thousand  vanities  additional,  possibly, 
in  the  breast  of  the  woman.  But  the  hard,  wrath- 
ful and  sordid  nature  that  had  wrung  as  much 
work  out  of  them  as  could  be  got  in  their  best  days, 
for  as  little  money  as  could  be  paid  to  hurry  on 
their  worst,  had  never  been  so  warped  but  that  it 
knew  their  moral  straightness  and  respected  it. 
In  its  own  despite,  in  a  constant  conflict  with  it- 
self and  them,  it  had  done  so.  And  this  is  the  eter- 
nal law.  For,  Evil  often  stops  short  at  itself  and 
dies  with  the  doer  of  it ;  but  Good  never. 

DICKENS. 
132 


OCTOBER 

If  in  his  cheek  unholy  blood 

Burned  for  one  youthful  hour, 
'T  was  but  the  flushing  of  the  bud 
That  blooms  a  milk-white  flower. 

O.  W.  HOLMES. 

PIP    Yes,  still  our  place  is  kept,  and  it  will  wait, 

Ready  for  us  to  fill  it,  soon  or  late  : 
No  star  is  ever  lost  we  once  have  seen, 
We  always  may  be  what  we  might  have  been, 
Since  Good,  though  only    thought,   has  life  and 

breath, 

God's  life  —  can  always  be  redeemed  from  death. 
And  evil  in  its  nature  is  decay, 
And  any  hour  can  blot  it  all  away. 

A.  PROCTER. 

j*£  If  evil  is  personified  in  Satan,  good  is  per- 
sonified in  Christ.  If  the  Personification  of 
evil  is  to  be  conquered,  he  must  be  conquered 
by  the  Personification  of  goodness.  Christ  and 
His  cleansing  blood,  Christ  and  the  Grace  of 
His  Spirit  and  His  Sacraments,  Christ  and  the 
virtues  which  He  creates  in  man,  are  more  than  a 
match  for  evil,  whether  in  the  devil  or  in  the  world, 
whether  in  ourselves  or  in  others.  His  patience 
is  stronger  than  the  world's  violence,  His  gentle- 
ness than  its  brutal  rudeness,  His  humility  than  its 
lofty  scorn,  His  divine  charity  than  its  cruelty  and 
hatred.  —  CANON  LIDDON. 
133 


OCTOBER 

£PI     Haunting  gloom  and  flitting  shades, 

Ghastly  shapes,  away  ! 
Christ  is  rising,  and  pervades 
Highest  Heaven  with  day. 

He  with  His  bright  spear  the  night 
Dazzles  and  pursues  ; 
Earth  wakes  up,  and  glows  with  light 
Of  a  thousand  hues. 

BREVIARY. 


And  this  is  the  writing  that  was  written,  Mene, 
Mene,  Tekel,  Upharsin. 

Tekel  ;  thou  art  weighed  in  the  balances,  and  art 
found  wanting.  —  DANIEL  v.  25,  27. 

Thou  shalt  by  no  means  come  out  thence,  till  thou 
hast  paid  the  uttermost  farthing. 

S.   MATTHEW  V.  26. 

FPtii  When  a  man  is  weighed  and  found  wanting, 
his  heaviest  punishment  consists  in  the  want- 
ing —  the  not  having  and  the  not  being  —  that 
which  is  essential  to  the  dignity  and  enjoyment  of 
existence.  When  purity,  worth,  honor,  rectitude, 
and  love  are  gone  out  of  the  soul,  there  is  no  need 
of  further  punishment.  The  wrath  of  God  is  com- 
plete in  the  mere  absence  of  these  things.  ...  In 
God's  eye  we  pass  for  what  we  are,  and  only  that. 
We  cannot  be  more  or  less.  We  cannot  weight  the 
scales,  nor  bind  down  the  beam,  nor  wrest  it  from 

134 


OCTOBER 

its  pivot,  nor  alter  the  score.  A  fearful  weighing  ! 
And  the  hand  comes  out  on  the  wall  to  write  down 
the  results.  The  conscience  sees  it.  "  Wanting," 
—  "Tekel."  It  is  the  doom  of  dooms.  «  Weighed," 
it  is  the  law  of  laws.  .  .  .  But  God  takes  no  techni- 
cal advantage  of  his  children.  He  considereth  our 
infirmities,  He  remembereth  that  we  are  dust.  His 
eye  pierces  beyond  the  action  to  the  inmost  motive. 
There  is  a  hidden  worth  and  beauty  in  many  a  heart 
where  the  world  cannot  see  it ;  but  God  sees  it 
and  weighs  it.  He  does  not  stand  by  the  stream, 
but  at  the  fountain.  The  good  we  mean,  though 
it  be  not  done,  if  it  be  in  our  hearts  to  do  it,  in  his 
sight  it  is  done  and  weighed. 

DR.   GEORGE  PUTNAM. 

Prav  Rome  put  up  her  poniard, 
And  Sparta  sheathe  the  sword ; 
Be  none  too  prompt  to  punish, 
And  cast  indignant  word. 

No  crime  can  outspeed  Justice, 

Who,  resting,  seems  delayed  — 
Full  faith  accord  the  angel 

Who  points  the  patient  blade. 

VICTOR  HUGO. 

jpjrt)     In  the  present  day  it  is  not  easy  to  find  a 

well-meaning  man  among  our  more  earnest 

thinkers  who  will  not  take  upon  himself  to  dispute 

the  whole  system  of  redemption  because  he  cannot 

unravel  the  mystery  of  the  punishment  of  sin.     But 

135 


OCTOBER 

can  he  unravel  the  mystery  of  the  punishment  of 
no  sin  ?  Can  he  entirely  account  for  all  that  hap- 
pens to  a  cab-horse  ?  Has  he  ever  looked  fairly 
at  the  fate  of  one  of  those  beasts  as  it  is  dying, 
measured  the  work  it  has  done,  and  the  reward  it  has 
got,  put  his  hand  upon  the  bloody  wounds  through 
which  its  bones  are  piercing,  and  so  looked  up  to 
Heaven  with  an  entire  understanding  of  Heaven's 
ways  about  the  horse  ?  Yet  the  horse  is  a  fact,  —  no 
dream ;  and  the  dust  it  dies  upon  and  the  dogs  that 
eat  it  are  facts;  yonder  happy  person,  whose  the 
horse  was  till  its  knees  were  broken  over  the  hurdles, 
who  had  an  immortal  soul  to  begin  with,  and  wealth 
and  peace  to  help  forward  his  immortality  ;  who 
has  also  devoted  the  powers  of  his  soul  and  body, 
and  wealth  and  peace,  to  the  spoiling  of  houses,  the 
corruption  of  the  innocent,  and  the  oppression  of 
the  poor,  —  this  happy  person  shall  have  no  stripes, 
—  shall  have  only  the  horse's  fate  of  annihilation  ;  or 
if  other  things  are  indeed  reserved  for  him,  Heaven's 
kindness  or  omnipotence  is  to  be  doubted  there- 
fore. —  RUSKIN. 

Unquestionably  there  is  a  revolt  in  the  popu- 
lar mind  against  the  doctrine  of  rewards  and 
punishments.  In  these  statements  we  surely  have 
an  echo  of  the  flabby  sentimentalism,  the  indiscrim- 
inate mashing  together  of  right  and  wrong  as  Car- 
lyle  calls  it,  which  is  the  substance  of  the  Gospel, 
according  to  J.  J.  Rousseau.  The  connection  be- 
tween wrong-doing  and  suffering  and  right-doing 
and  blessedness  is  of  the  very  essence  of  the  moral 

136 


OCTOBER 

law.  The  categorical  imperative  of  duty  means  an 
obligation  which  it  is  our  supreme  good  to  obey, 
our  supreme  evil  to  disobey.  There  is  something, 
writes  Kant,  in  the  idea  of  our  practical  reason 
which  accompanies  the  transgression  of  an  ethical 
mandate,  namely,  its  punishableness. 

QUARTERLY  REVIEW. 

The  New  Testament  is,  as  its  name  imports, 
a  covenant.  It  is  not  an  offer  of  uncondi- 
tional pardon,  for  pardon  is  reconciliation,  and  God 
is  conditioned  by  Himself.  "Draw  nigh  to  me, 
and  I  will  draw  nigh  to  you,"  saith  the  Lord. 
Mercy  is  infinite  and  unconditional ;  pardon  is  not. 
Your  own  will,  your  own  sin,  can  say,  No.  The 
Prodigal  could  not  prevent  the  Infinite  Love  follow- 
ing the  lost  sheep  into  the  wilderness,  or  searching, 
though  with  the  besom  of  affliction,  for  the  spiritual 
gold  recklessly  cast  away  ;  but  the  moment  in  which 
he  came  to  himself,  and  said,  "  I  will  arise  and  go  to 
my  father,"  depended  upon  changes  within  his  own 
spirit.  .  .  .  God  alone  has  all  the  tenderness,  and 
nothing  of  the  weakness,  of  a  Father.  With  Him 
alone  there  is  unmeasured  Goodness,  but  no  le- 
niency, no  mitigation  of  holy  Law.  Leniency,  relaxa- 
tion of  Law,  is  ever  a  confession  of  weakness,  of  lia- 
bility to  err.  With  God  the  inviolableness  of  Law 
is  the  bond  of  His  Goodness ;  for  His  laws  being  in 
themselves  the  highest  expression  of  His  wisdom 
and  His  loving-kindness,  not  to  execute  but  to  relax 
them  would  show  the  absence  of  Mercy. 

DR.  J.  H.  THOM. 

137 


OCTOBER 

Fffottt    Though  God  be  good  and  free  be  Heaven, 

No  force  divine  can  love  compel  ; 
And,  though  the  song  of  sins  forgiven 
May  sound  through  lowest  hell, 

The  sweet  persuasion  of  His  voice 

Respects  thy  sanctity  of  will  ; 
He  giveth  day  :  thou  hast  thy  choice 

To  walk  in  darkness  still. 

What  if  thine  eye  refuse  to  see, 

Thine  ear  of  Heaven's  free  welcome  fail, 

And  thou  a  willing  captive  be, 
Thyself  thy  own  dark  jail  ? 

WHITTIER. 


As  for  purposes  of  knowledge  it  is  appointed 
us  to  believe  that  the  sun  which  has  risen  to- 
day will  rise  to-morrow  ;  so,  for  the  ends  of  duty,  it 
is  given  us  to  feel  that  sin  has  a  bitter  fruit  to  ripen, 
and  that  having  sown  the  wind  we  shall  reap  the 
whirlwind.  .  .  .  Not  one  consequence  which  He 
has  annexed  to  wrong-doing  will  fail  to  appear  with 
relentless  punctuality  :  no  miracle  will  interpose  to 
conduct  away  the  lightning  of  retribution.  Within 
that  realm  of  law  and  nature,  He  is  inexorable,  and 
has  put  the  freedom  of  pity  quite  away.  .  .  .  But  it 
is  otherwise  with  respect  to  the  soul  and  person  of 
the  sinner  himself  :  the  sentiments  of  God  towards 
him  are  not  bound  :  and  if,  while  the  deed  of  the 
past  is  an  irrevocable  transgression,  the  temper  of 
the  present  is  one  of  surrender  and  return,  there  is 
138 


OCTOBER 

nothing  to  sustain  the  Divine  aversion  or  hinder 
the  outflow  of  infinite  pity.  Free  as  our  soul  is 
to  come  back  and  cry  at  the  gate  ;  so  free  is  He  to 
open  and  fold  us  gently  to  his  heart  again. 

DR.  J.  MARTINEAU. 

£]££    Though  the  mills  of   God  grind  slowly,  yet 

they  grind  exceeding  small, 
Though  with  patience  He  stands  waiting,  with 
exactness  grinds  He  all. 

LONGFELLOW. 

From  this  sinful  heart  of  mine, 
To  thy  bosom  I  would  flee ; 
I  am  not  my  own,  but  Thine, 
"  God  be  merciful  to  me  !  " 

There  is  one  beside  Thy  throne, 

And  my  only  hope  and  plea 
Are  in  Him,  and  Him  alone, 

"  God  be  merciful  to  me !  " 

He  my  cause  will  undertake, 

My  interpreter  will  be ; 
He  's  my  all —  and  for  His  sake, 

"  God  be  merciful  to  me !  " 

J.  S.  B.  MONSELL. 
139 


FOR  THE   MONTH   OF 
NOVEMBER 


Atonement 

HP  HE  chastisement  of  our  peace  was  upon  him ; 
and  with  his  stripes  we  are  healed. 

ISAIAH  liii.  5. 

For  Christ  also  hath  once  suffered  for  sins,  the 
just  for  the  unjust,  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God. 

I  PETER  iii.  1 8. 
He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins. 

i  JOHN  ii.  2. 

ft  Christ  being  the  transcendent  manifestation  of 
God  in  human  life ;  we  have  in  the  judgments 
of  Christ  the  sort  of  judgment  that  we  are  ulti- 
mately to  expect.  .  .  .  There  is  no  redemption  save 
through  suffering  for  another's  sin,  and  the  mother, 
the  patriot,  and  the  pastor  illustrate  this.  There 
can  be  no  proper  conception  of  God  which  is  with- 
out an  idea  of  his  suffering  for  the  sin  of  mankind. 

DR.  LYMAN  ABBOTT. 
140 


NOVEMBER 

III  An  expiring  world  always  breathes  its  last  and 
expiates  its  faults  in  the  arms  of  a  saint,  — 
this  is  an  invariable  law  of  history.  The  purest  of 
the  race  has  to  bear  their  faults,  and  the  punish- 
ment devolves  on  the  innocent,  whose  crime  is  the 
carrying  on  of  a  system  condemned  to  perish,  and 
the  cloaking  with  his  virtues  the  long-continued  in- 
justice that  oppresses  his  people.  —  MICHELET. 

ftj     The  flash  that  struck  thy  tree  —  no  more 

To  shelter  thee  —  lets  Heaven's  blue  floor 
Shine  where  it  never  shone  before. 

The  cry  wrung  from  thy  spirit's  pain 
May  echo  on  some  far-off  plain, 
And  guide  a  wanderer  home  again. 

It  may  be  that  in  some  great  need, 
Thy  life's  poor  fragments  are  decreed 
To  help  build  up  a  lofty  deed. 

A.  PROCTER. 

fo  There  breathes  through  every  page  [of  the  Life 
of  Laurence  Oliphant]  the  upward  longing  of  a 
heart  that  groans  under  the  pressure  of  sin  as  most 
men  groan  under  the  pressure  of  pain.  Perhaps 
there  will  always  be  associated  with  this  longing 
a  hope,  more  or  less  vague,  which  to  the  average 
mind  must  take  the  aspect  of  fanaticism  or  insanity  ; 
the  hope  for  some  physical  aid  or  symbol  of  this  re- 
generative process,  some  outward  and  visible  sign 
of  the  inward  and  spiritual  grace  which  is  to  heal 
141 


NOVEMBER 

the  sick  soul  and  not  the  soul  only.  Our  Church 
preserves  this  hope  in  its  purest  form  and  associates 
it  with  the  bequest  of  our  Lord,  but  many  accept  it 
who  hardly  see  the  full  bearing  of  the  sacramental 
belief,  who  even  recoil  from  any  other  expression 
of  the  same  idea  as  low,  gross  superstition. 

JULIA  WEDGWOOD. 

jjj  At  every  stage  in  the  process  which  is  gener- 
ally summed  up  in  the  one  word,  Atonement, 
we  are  in  presence  of  forces  which  issue  from  in- 
finity and  pass  out  of  our  sight  even  while  we 
are  contemplating  their  effects.  .  .  .  Whatever  the 
ultimate  mysteries  of  the  death  of  Christ  may  be, 
it  is  certain  that  it  has  had  power  to  convince  men 
of  forgiveness,  and  to  give  them  a  new  life.  .  .  . 
The  death  of  Christ  is,  in  the  first  place,  to  be 
regarded  as  propitiatory.  ...  St.  Bernard  said, 
"  Not  His  death,  but  His  willing  acceptance  of 
death,  was  pleasing  to  God."  The  Atonement  is 
undoubtedly  a  mystery,  but  all  forgiveness  is  a 
mystery.  The  Atonement  undoubtedly  transgresses 
the  strict  law  of  exact  retribution,  but  all  forgive- 
ness transgresses  it.  ...  It  may  be  true  that 
"  punishment  cannot  be  borne  by  any  one  but  the 
sinner,"  and  therefore  it  may  be  right  not  to  call 
Christ's  sufferings  punishment,  but  it  is  certainly 
not  true  that  the  sufferings  which  result  from  sin 
cannot  be  borne  by  any  one  but  the  sinner :  every 
day  demonstrates  the  falsity  of  such  an  assertion. 

REV.  ARTHUR  LYTTELTON. 
142 


NOVEMBER 

foil    A  voice  upon  the  midnight  air, 

Where  Kedron's  moonlit  waters  stray, 
Weeps  forth,  in  agony  of  prayer, 
"  O  Father,  take  this  cup  away  !  " 

Ah  !  thou  who  sorrowest  unto  death, 
We  conquer  in  thy  mortal  fray  ; 
And  Earth,  for  all  her  children  saith, 
"  O  God  !  take  not  this  cup  away  !  " 

ANONYMOUS. 


of  t&e  SottI 

My  soul  is  full  of  trouble. 

PSALM  Ixxxviii.  3. 

Now  is  my  soul  troubled.  —  s.  JOHN  xii.  27. 
I  am  not  alone,  because  the  Father  is  with  me. 

s.  JOHN  xvi.  32. 
Joy  cometh  in  the  morning.  —  PSALM  xxx.  5. 

If  In  every  earnest  life,  there  are  weary  flats  to 
tread,  with  the  heavens  out  of  sight,  —  no  sun, 
no  moon,  —  and  not  a  tint  of  light  upon  the  path 
below;  when  the  only  guidance  is  the  faith  of 
brighter  hours,  and  the  secret  Hand  we  are  too 
numb  and  dark  to  feel.  .  .  .  Tell  me  not  that  these 
undulations  of  the  soul  are  the  mere  instability  of 
enthusiasm  and  infirmity.  Did  not  the  Son  of 
God  himself,  the  very  type  of  our  humanity,  expe- 
rience them  more  than  all  ?  Did  He  not  quit  the 
daily  path,  now  for  a  Transfiguration,  and  now  for 
a  Gethsemane  ?  Did  not  his  voice  burst  into  the 
H3 


NOVEMBER 

exclamation,  "  I  beheld  Satan  as  lightning  fall  from 
heaven,"  yet  also  confess,  "  Now  is  my  soul 
troubled  "  ?  Ah  no !  those  intermittent  movements 
are  the  sign  of  divine  gifts,  not  of  human  weakness. 
God  has  so  arranged  the  chronometry  of  our  spirits 
that  there  shall  be  thousands  of  silent  moments 
between  the  striking  hours. 

DR.  JAMES  MARTINEAU. 

j*    We  are  as  clouds  that  veil  the  midnight  moon  ; 
How  restlessly  they   speed,    and    gleam,    and 

quiver, 

Streaking  the  darkness  radiantly !  yet  soon 
Night  closes  round,  and  they  are  lost  forever. 

It  is  the  same,  for  be  it  joy  or  sorrow, 
The  path  of  its  departure  still  is  free ; 
Man's  yesterday  may  ne'er  be  like  his  morrow ; 
Naught  may  endure  but  mutability. 

SHELLEY. 

fl    Thou  hast  turned  my  heaviness  into  joy  :  thou 
hast  put  off  my  sackcloth,  and  girded  me  with 
gladness.  — PSALM  xxx.  12. 

Here  is  described  a  change,  complete,  and  more 
or  less  sudden,  from  sadness  to  joy.  David  has 
escaped  a  danger  which  had  brought  him  very  near 
to  death ;  and  now  he  is  thankful  and  exultant. 
His  words  are  in  keeping  with  what  Christians 
feel,  as  they  pass  from  the  last  days  of  Holy  Week 
into  the  first  hours  of  Easter. 

CANON  LIDDON. 
144 


NOVEMBER 

£||    We  cannot  kindle  when  we  will 

The  fire  which  in  the  heart  resides ; 
The  spirit  bloweth  and  is  still, 
In  mystery  our  soul  abides. 
But  tasks  in  hours  of  insight  willed 
Can  be  in  hours  of  gloom  fulfilled. 

MATTHEW  ARNOLD. 

j»i\l    Be  near  me  when  my  light  is  low, 

When  the  blood  creeps  and  the  nerves  prick 
And  tingle ;  and  the  heart  is  sick, 
And  all  the  wheels  of  Being  slow. 

Be  near  me  when  I  fade  away, 
To  point  the  term  of  human  strife, 
And  on  the  low,  dark  verge  of  life, 
The  twilight  of  eternal  day. 

TENNYSON. 

Plfj    Sweet  thought  of  God,  now  do  thy  work 

As  thou  hast  done  before  ; 
Wake  up,  and  tears  will  wake  with  thee, 
And  the  dull  mood  be  o'er. 

The  very  thinking  of  the  thought, 

Without  or  praise  or  prayer, 
Gives  light  to  know  and  life  to  do, 

And  marvellous  strength  to  bear. 

I  bless  Thee,  Lord,  for  this  kind  check 
To  spirits  over  free, 

145 


NOVEMBER 

And  for  all  things  that  make  me  feel 
More  helpless  need  of  Thee. 

FABER. 

JFate 

pjj     O  thou  sword  of  the  Lord,  how  long  will  it  be 
ere  thou   be  quiet?     Put  up  thyself  into  thy 
scabbard,  rest,  and  be  still. 

How  can  it  be  quiet,  seeing  the  Lord  hath  given 
it  a  charge  against  Ashkelon,  and  against  the  sea 
shore  ?  There  hath  he  appointed  it. 

JEREMIAH  Xlvii.  6,  7. 

If  thou  hadst  known,  even  thou,  at  least  in  this  thy 
day,  the  things  which  belong  unto  thy  peace !  But 
now  they  are  hid  from  thine  eyes. 

s.  LUKE  xix.  42. 

j*j)l  The  Mohammedans  say  that  each  man's  des- 
tiny is  written  on  his  forehead.  It  is  written 
behind  his  forehead,  in  his  brain.  When  God,  by 
his  providence,  causes  us  to  be  born  with  a  certain 
organic  structure,  gives  us  a  specific  education  by 
place,  time,  and  circumstances,  He  provides  for  each 
of  us  a  distinct  calling  and  election.  He  elects  us, 
not  to  a  place  in  the  other  world,  but  to  a  work  in 
this  world.  Each  of  us  has  something  to  do  for 
Him.  Our  business  is  to  find  out  what  that  work 
is,  and  to  do  it.  Our  power  and  our  freedom  con- 
sist not  in  doing  anything  and  everything,  but  that 
very  something  we  are  made  for.  We  are  free  to 
accept  or  reject  our  destiny,  but  not  free  to  invent 
any  other.  —  DR.  JAMES  FREEMAN  CLARKE. 
146 


NOVEMBER 

Shakespeare  always  leans  on  the  force  of 
Fate,  as  it  urges  the  final  evil;  and  dwells 
with  infinite  bitterness  on  the  power  of  the  wicked, 
and  the  infinitude  of  result  dependent  seemingly  on 
little  things.  A  fool  brings  the  last  piece  of  news 
from  Verona,  and  the  dearest  lives  of  its  noble 
houses  are  lost ;  they  might  have  been  saved  if  the 
sacristan  had  not  stumbled  as  he  walked.  Othello 
mislays  his  handkerchief,  and  there  remains  nothing 
for  him  but  death.  Hamlet  gets  hold  of  the  wrong 
foil,  and  the  rest  is  silence.  Edmund's  runner  is  a 
moment  too  late  at  the  prison,  and  the  feather  will 
not  move  at  Cordelia's  lips.  Salisbury,  a  moment 
too  late  at  the  tower,  and  Arthur  lies  on  the  stones 
dead.  Goneril  and  I  ago  have,  on  the  whole,  much 
of  their  own  way  in  this  world  Shakespeare  sees, 
though  they  come  to  a  bad  end.  —  RUSKIN. 

Vt)iti  ^  we  must  accept  Fate,  we  are  not  less 
compelled  to  affirm  liberty,  the  significance 
of  the  individual,  the  grandeur  of  duty,  the  power 
of  character.  .  .  .  "  The  doer  must  suffer,"  said  the 
Greeks.  "  God  himself  cannot  procure  good  for  the 
wicked,"  said  the  Welsh  triad.  .  .  .  Man  cannot 
blink  the  free-will.  To  hazard  the  contradiction  — 
freedom  is  necessary.  If  you  please  to  plant  your- 
self on  the  side  of  Fate,  and  say  Fate  is  all,  then 
we  say,  a  part  of  Fate  is  the  freedom  of  man. 
Forever  wells  up  the  impulse  of  choosing  and  act- 
ing in  the  soul.  Intellect  annuls  Fate.  'T  is  the 
best  use  of  Fate  to  teach  a  datal  courage.  Go 
face  the  fire  at  sea,  or  the  cholera  in  your  friend's 
147 


NOVEMBER 

house,  or  the  burglar  in  your  own,  or  what  danger 
lies  in  the  way  of  duty,  knowing  you  are  guarded 
by  the  cherubim  of  Destiny.  —  EMERSON. 

Pl£     Oh  !  call  it  Providence  or  fate, 

The  Sphinx  propounds  the  riddle  still, 
That  Man  must  bear  and  expiate 
Loads  of  involuntary  ill : 

So  shall  Endurance  ever  hold 
The  foremost  rank  'mid  human  needs, 

Not  without  faith  that  God  can  mould 
To  good  the  dross  of  evil  deeds. 

LORD   HOUGHTON. 

j££  Imminent  perdition  is  not  usually  driven  away 
by  words  of  warning.  Didactic  Destiny  has 
other  methods  in  store ;  or  these  would  fail  always. 
Such  words  should,  nevertheless,  be  uttered,  when 
they  dwell  truly  in  the  soul  of  any  man.  Words 
are  hard,  are  importunate;  but  how  much  harder 
the  importunate  events  they  foreshadow !  Here 
and  there  a  human  soul  may  listen  to  the  words,  — 
who  knows  how  many  human  souls?  —  whereby  the 
importunate  events,  if  not  diverted  and  prevented, 
will  be  rendered  less  hard.  —  CARLYLE. 

ffli  I  said  farewell ; 

I  stepped  across  the  cracking  earth  and  knew 
'T  would  yawn  behind  me.     I  must  walk  right  on. 
If  I  can  never  live  like  him  on  faith 
In  glorious  morrows,  I  am  resolute. 
148 


NOVEMBER 

No,  on  the  close-thronged  spaces  of  the  earth 
A  battle  rages  :  Fate  has  carried  me 
'Mid  the  thick  arrows :  I  will  keep  my  stand, 
Not  shrink  and  let  the  shaft  pass  by  my  breast 
To  pierce  another :  oh,  't  is  written  large, 
The  thing  I  have  to  do. 

GEORGE  ELIOT. 


For  here  have  we  no  continuing  city,  but  we 
seek  one  to  come.  —  HEBREWS  xiii.  14. 
Arise  and  depart  for  this  is  not  your  rest. 

MICAH  ii.  10. 

Set  your  affection  on  things  above,  not  on  things 
on  the  earth.  — COLOSSIANS  iii.  2. 

The  fashion  of  this  world  passeth  away. 

I  CORINTHIANS  vii.  31. 

When  persons,  either  from  thoughtfulness 
of  mind,  or  from  intellectual  activity,  begin 
to  contemplate  the  visible  state  of  things  into  which 
they  are  born,  then  forthwith  they  find  it  a  maze  and 
a  perplexity.  It  is  a  riddle  which  they  cannot  solve. 
It  seems  full  of  contradictions  and  without  a  drift. 
.  .  .  Are  we  to  look  at  all  things  in  a  gay  and 
mirthful  way  ?  or  in  a  melancholy  way  ?  in  a  de- 
sponding or  a  hopeful  way  ?  .  .  .  What  is  given  us 
by  revelation  to  estimate  and  measure  this  world 
by? — the  crucifixion  of  the  Son  of  God.  His 
cross  has  put  its  true  value  upon  everything  which 
we  see,  upon  all  fortunes,  all  advantages,  all  ranks, 
149 


NOVEMBER 

all  dignities,  all  pleasures;  upon  the  lust  of  the 
flesh,  and  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life. 
It  has  set  a  price  upon  the  excitements,  the  rivalries, 
the  hopes,  the  fears,  the  desires,  the  efforts,  the 
triumphs,  of  mortal  man.  ...  In  the  Cross,  and 
Him  who  hung  upon  it,  all  things  meet ;  all  things 
subserve  it,  all  things  need  it.  He  was  lifted  up 
upon  it,  that  He  might  draw  all  men  and  all  things 
unto  Him.  —  CARDINAL  NEWMAN. 

It  has  often  been  remarked  that  in  the  ma- 
jority of  genuine  national  songs  there  is  a 
prevalence  of  the  melancholy,  the  plaintive,  and  the 
aspiring.  Aspiration  is  an  innate  feeling  in  man, 
inseparable  from  his  inmost  nature.  Man's  aspira- 
tions have  been  mingled  with  a  feeling  of  sadness 
for  the  loss  of  innocence ;  and  these  two  radical 
feelings  of  the  human  heart,  aspiration  and  sadness, 
have  ever  pervaded  all  genuine  national  poetry. 
So  universal  a  lament  over  the  loss  and  ruin  of  the 
original  beauty  of  life  must  date  from  a  time  ante- 
cedent to  that  of  the  history  of  individual  nations  : 
it  can  but  be  the  echo  of  a  feeling  which  has  pos- 
sessed not  this  or  that  nation,  but  the  human  race. 
This  note  of  sadness  is  the  keynote  of  the  earliest 
history,  and  runs  in  various  forms  through  the  old- 
est national  traditions.  —  PROFESSOR  LASSAULX. 

jflft    Somewhere  at  every  hour 

The  watchman  on  the  tower 
Looks  forth,  and  sees  the  fleet 
Approach  of  the  hurrying  feet 
150 


NOVEMBER 

Of  messengers  that  bear 
The  tidings  of  despair. 
O  Absalom,  my  son  ! 

He  goes  forth  from  the  door 
Who  shall  return  no  more. 
With  him  our  joy  departs  ; 
The  light  goes  out  in  our  hearts  ; 
In  the  Chamber  over  the  Gate 
We  sit  disconsolate. 
O  Absalom,  my  son 

LONGFELLOW. 

If  every  man's  internal  care 

Were  written  on  his  brow, 
How  many  would  our  pity  share 
Who  raise  our  envy  now  ? 

The  fatal  secret,  when  revealed, 

Of  every  aching  breast, 

Would  prove  that  only  while  concealed 

Their  lot  appeared  the  best. 

METASTASIO. 


And  so  I  argue  about  the  world  :  if  there 
be  a  God,  since  there  is  a  God,  the  human 
race  is  implicated  in  some  terrible  aboriginal  calam- 
ity. It  is  out  of  joint  with  the  purposes  of  its  Crea- 
tor. This  is  a  fact,  —  a  fact  as  true  as  the  fact  of 
its  existence  ;  and  thus  the  doctrine  of  what  is  theo- 
logically called  original  sin  becomes  to  me  almost 


NOVEMBER 

as  certain  as  that  the  world  exists,  and  as  the  exist- 

ence Of  God.  —  CARDINAL  NEWMAN. 


The  flower  that  smiles  to-day 
To-morrow  dies  ; 
All  that  we  wish  to  stay 

Tempts,  and  then  flies  ; 
What  is  this  world's  delight  ? 
Lightning  that  mocks  the  night, 
Brief  even  as  bright. 

SHELLEY. 

Earth  seems  to  make  a  sound  in  places  lone, 
Sleeps  through  the  day,  but  wakes  at  night 
to  moan  ; 

Shunning  our  confidence,  as  if  we  were 

A  guilty  burden  it  could  hardly  bear. 

The  winds  can  never  sing  but  they  must  wail; 
Waters  lift  up  sad  voices  in  the  vale  ; 
One  mountain-hollow  to  another  calls 
With  broken  cries  of  plaining  waterfalls. 

The  sea,  unmated  creature,  tired  and  lone, 
Makes  on  its  desolate  sands  eternal  moan  : 
Lakes,  on  the  calmest  days,  are  ever  throbbing 
Upon  their  pebbly  shores  with  petulant  sobbing. 

The  clouds  in  heaven  their  placid  motions  borrow 
From  the  funereal  tread  of  men  in  sorrow  ; 
Or,  when  they  scud  across  the  stormy  day, 
Mimic  the  flight  of  hosts  in  disarray. 

152  FABER. 


NOVEMBER 

£££     Is  it  not  strange,  the  darkest  hour 
That  ever  dawn'd  on  sinful  earth 
Should  touch  the  heart  with  softer  power 
For  comfort,  than  an  angePs  mirth  ? 
That  to  the  Cross  the  mourner's  eye  should  turn 
Sooner  than  where  the  stars  of  Christmas  burn  ? 

Yet  so  it  is  :  for  duly  there 

The  bitter  herbs  of  earth  are  set, 

Till  tempered  by  the  Saviour's  prayer, 

And  with  the  Saviour's  life-blood  wet, 

They  turn  to  sweetness,  and  drop  holy  balm, 

Soft  as  imprison'd  martyr's  death-bed  calm. 

KEBLE. 

153 


FOR  THE   MONTH   OF 
DECEMBER 


pf  OR  unto  us  a  child  is  born :  and  his  name 
"  shall  be  called  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  The 
mighty  God,  The  everlasting  Father,  The  Prince 
of  Peace.  —  ISAIAH  ix.  6. 

And  the  work  of  righteousness  shall  be  peace. 

ISAIAH  xxxii.  17. 

Blessed  are  the  peacemakers :  for  they  shall  be 
called  the  children  of  God.  —  s.  MATTHEW  v.  9. 

It     It  came  upon  the  midnight  clear, 

That  glorious  song  of  old, 
From  angels  bending  near  the  earth 

To  touch  their  harps  of  gold :  — 
"  Peace  to  the  earth,  good-will  to  men 

From  Heaven's  all-gracious  King ! " 
The  world  in  solemn  stillness  lay 

To  hear  the  angels  sing. 

DR.  E.  H.  SEARS. 
154 


DECEMBER 

tfj  The  province  of  Tuzulutlan  was  called  by  the 
Spaniards  the  Land  of  War.  They  had  idols 
and  human  sacrifices,  and  were  desperate  fighters. 
This  it  was  that  Las  Casas  chose  for  his  experi- 
ment. Let  us  note  well  his  manner  of  proceeding, 
for  there  are  those  to-day  who  maintain  that  the 
type  of  character  which  Victor  Hugo  has  sketched 
in  Monseigneur  Bienvenu  is  not  calculated  to 
achieve  success  in  the  world.  The  example  of  Las 
Casas,  however,  tends  to  confirm  us  in  the  opinion 
that  when  combined  with  sufficient  intelligence,  that 
type  of  character  is  the  most  indomitable  and  mas- 
terful of  all.  And  in  this  I  seem  to  see  good  prom- 
ise for  the  future  of  humanity.  The  wisdom  of  the 
serpent,  when  wedded  to  the  innocence  of  the  dove, 
is  of  all  things  the  most  winning  and  irresistible,  as 
Las  Casas  now  proceeded  to  prove.  .  .  .  Before 
another  year  had  elapsed  the  Indians  had  volun- 
tarily destroyed  their  idols,  renounced  cannibalism, 
and  promised  to  desist  from  warfare  unless  actually 
invaded.  .  .  .  The  work  was  permanent.  Las  Ca- 
sas had  come,  he  had  seen,  and  he  had  conquered ; 
and  not  a  drop  of  human  blood  had  been  shed ! 
...  So  when  the  stern  conqueror  and  lord  of  Gua- 
temala, coming  forth  to  greet  Las  Casas  and  the 
Indian  king,  took  off  his  plumed  and  jewelled  cap, 
and  bent  his  head  in  reverence,  it  seems  to  me  one 
of  the  beautiful  moments  in  history,  one  of  the 
moments  that  comfort  us  with  the  thought  of  what 
may  yet  be  done  with  frail  humanity  when  the  spirit 
of  Christ  shall  have  come  to  be  better  understood. 

JOHN  FISKE. 

155 


DECEMBER 

|fo  Robert  extended  his  forgiveness  to  all  sinners. 
Such  was  the  gentleness  and  innocence  of  the 
first  Capetian  king.  It  was  in  the  reign  of  this 
good  Robert  that  the  dreaded  year  one  thousand 
came  and  passed  away ;  and  it  seemed  as  if  Divine 
wrath  had  been  disarmed  by  this  simple-minded 
man,  who  was  as  an  incarnation  of  the  peace  of 

God.  —  MICHELET. 

fo  Bernard  was  lying  upon  his  sick-bed  at  Clair- 
vaux  in  the  last  year  of  his  life  on  earth,  when 
news  came  of  a  terrible  contest  raging  at  Metz, 
between  the  burghers  of  the  town  and  the  neighbor- 
ing nobles.  Once  more,  and  now  for  the  last  time, 
the  sovereign  and  invincible  will  lifted  into  a  tem- 
porary vigor  the  wasted  and  dissolving  frame,  and 
the  abbot  went  forth,  in  uttermost  feebleness,  to  the 
banks  of  the  Moselle.  The  exasperated  nobles 
would  not  even  hear  him,  but  broke  up  their  camp, 
and  went  elsewhere,  to  avoid  the  spell  which  they 
feared  his  speech  might  cast  upon  them.  But  they 
could  not  avoid,  and  could  not  resist,  the  impres- 
sion which  even  his  presence  made.  August  and 
saintly,  he  was  to  them  not  so  much  an  earthly 
counsellor  as  a  messenger  from  on  high,  and  he 
waited,  in  absolute  confidence,  for  the  end.  One 
of  his  visions  came  at  night  to  encourage  him,  and 
he  said  to  his  companions,  "  Be  not  dismayed, 
there  are  many  difficulties,  but  the  desired  peace  is 
near."  In  fact,  at  midnight  came  a  message  of 
penitence  and  reconciliation  from  the  fierce  and 
furious  men  of  war.  Terms  of  truce  were  proposed 


DECEMBER 

and  accepted,  and  after  a  few  days  a  firm  and  last- 
ing peace  was  established.  —  DR.  R.  s.  STORRS. 

jj(     Christ's  death  is  the  triumph  of  peace  in  the 
spiritual  world.     Peace  among  men  is  secured, 
because  the  Cross  is  the  centre  of  the  regenerated 
world  as  of  the  moral  universe.  —  CANON  LIDDON. 

foil     From  the  dark  future  through  long  generations, 
The  sounds   of  war  grow  fainter  and  then 

cease ; 

And,  like  a  bell  with  solemn  sweet  vibrations, 
I  hear  once  more  the  voice  of  Christ  say,  "  Peace ! " 

Peace  !  and  no  longer  from  its  brazen  portals, 
The  blast  of  war's  great  organ  shakes  the  skies ; 
But,  beautiful  as  songs  of  the  immortals, 
The  holy  melodies  of  love  arise. 

LONGFELLOW. 

lobe  to  (SoU  an*  JHan 

ftlii    We  love  him  because  he  first  loved  us. 

I  JOHN  IV.  19. 

And  this  commandment  have  we  from  him,  That 
he  who  loveth  God  love  his  brother  also. 

I  JOHN  iv.  21. 

Simon,  son  of  Jonas,  lovest  thou  me  ?  He  saith 
unto  him,  Yea,  Lord  ;  thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee. 
He  saith  unto  him,  Feed  my  sheep. 

S.  JOHN  xxi.  1 6. 
157 


DECEMBER 

l£  There  is  a  time  when  religion  is  only  felt  as  a 
bridle  that  checks  us,  and  then  comes  another 
time  when  it  is  a  sweet  and  penetrating  life-blood, 
which  sets  in  motion  every  fibre  of  the  soul,  expands 
the  understanding,  gives  us  the  Infinite  for  our 
horizon,  and  makes  all  things  clear  to  us. 

LACORDAIRE. 

£  The  love  of  Jesus  is  not  a  fancy,  not  a  dream. 
If  the  solid  earth  is  real,  it  is  real.  The  mother 
may  forget  her  child,  the  lover  his  well-beloved,  but 
the  children  of  men  will  never  cease  to  be  drawn 
to  the  Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus.  He  asked  for  this 
love ;  it  is,  I  may  say,  the  only  thing  for  which 
He  asks,  for  in  it  all  else  is  contained.  He  fore- 
saw that  it  would  be  given  to  Him ;  that  it  would 
burn  through  the  long  night  of  ages  ;  that  in  every 
country  and  all  future  time  the  most  generous  and 
loving  natures  would  turn  to  Him  as  the  eye  seeks 
the  light.  What  will  the  Son  of  Man  do  with  this 
love  ?  He  will  have  us  love  Him,  doubtless,  because 
He  is  the  best,  the  worthiest  object  of  our  love  ; 
but  to  what  practical  test  and  use  will  He  put  the 
exalted  and  boundless  devotion  of  His  followers  ? 
He  will  take  our  hearts  and  give  them  to  all  who 
suffer  and  are  weary  and  heavy-laden.  The  sinner, 
the  beggar,  the  leper,  the  slave,  are  the  brothers  of 
Jesus,  and  whatsoever  we  do  for  them  is  proof  of 
our  love  for  Him.  —  BISHOP  SPALDING. 

£1    The  love  of  Jesus  reproduces  itself  in  the  lives 
of  His  working  and  suffering  children.      In 
158 


DECEMBER 

some  shape  they  are  ever  giving  themselves  to  God 
and  for  their  fellow-men.  True  love  is  no  thin  dis- 
embodied sentiment.  Love  asserts  its  presence  in 
a  practical,  visible  way,  when  once  it  really  lives. 

CANON   LIDDON. 

r|{  Fast,  that  you  may  give  to  the  poor  what  you 
deny  yourself ;  deny  yourself,  that  you  may 
give  ;  contemn  luxuries,  or,  at  times,  even  comforts, 
that  you  may  give;  give  up  from  time  to  time 
enjoyments  ;  think  what  luxuries  you  may  abandon ; 
what  superfluities  you  may  part  with  ;  what  habitual 
self-indulgence,  if  so  be,  you  may  break  off ;  how 
you  may  diminish  your  expenses  upon  self,  and 
enlarge  your  charity  to  your  brethren,  and  in  them 
"  lend  unto  the  Lord."  .  .  .  Relinquish  what  you 
wish,  and  practise  what  you  wish  not ;  make  it 
your  object  so  to  do,  in  order  to  school  yourselves 
and  have  the  habit  of  self-denial.  —  DR.  PUSEY. 

£iti  We  continually  talk  of  taking  up  our  cross, 
as  if  the  only  harm  in  a  cross  was  the  weight 
of  it ;  as  if  it  was  only  a  thing  to  be  carried  instead  of 
to  be  —  crucified  upon.  "  They  that  are  His  have 
crucified  the  flesh  with  the  affections  and  lusts." 
.  .  .  Does  not  that  mean  that  they  are  ready  to 
leave  houses,  lands,  and  kindreds  —  yes,  and  life 
if  need  be  ?  Life !  some  of  us  are  ready  enough 
to  throw  that  away,  joyless  as  we  have  made  it. 
But,  "station  in  Life" — how  many  of  us  are  ready 
to  quit  that  ?  Is  it  not  always  the  great  objection 
when  there  is  question  of  finding  something  useful 
159 


DECEMBER 

to  do,  "  We  cannot  leave  our  stations  in  Life  "  ? 
.  .  .  Levi's  station  in  life  was  the  receipt  of  cus- 
tom ;  and  Peter's,  the  shore  of  Galilee  ;  and  Paul's, 
the  ante-chambers  of  the  High-Priest,  —  "  which 
station  in  Life "  each  had  to  leave,  with  brief 
notice.  —  RUSKIN. 

Plfo  O !  our  Saviour ;  of  ourselves  we  cannot  love 
Thee,  cannot  follow  Thee,  cannot  cleave  unto 
Thee  ;  but  Thou  didst  come  down  that  we  might 
love  Thee,  didst  ascend  that  we  might  follow  Thee, 
didst  bind  us  around  Thee  as  Thy  girdle,  that  we 
might  be  held  fast  unto  Thee.  Thou  Who  hast 
loved  us,  make  us  to  love  Thee ;  Thou  Who  hast 
sought  us,  make  us  to  seek  Thee ;  be  Thou  Thyself 
the  Way,  that  we  may  find  Thee,  and  be  found  in 
Thee,  our  only  Hope,  and  our  everlasting  Joy. 

DR.  PUSEY. 

CJe  Potoer  of  JattI;  an*  lobe 

jft     All  things  are  yours  ;  and  ye  are  Christ's  ;  and 

Christ  is  God's.  —  I  CORINTHIANS  iii.  22,  23. 
Who  through  faith  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought 
righteousness,    obtained     promises,     stopped    the 
mouths   of  lions,  quenched   the  violence   of  fire, 
escaped  the  edge  of  the  sword. 

HEBREWS  xi.  33,  34. 

pfol     St.  Bernard  of  Clairvaux,  naturally  a  devout, 
poetic  recluse,  became  the  most  practical  mas- 
ter of  affairs  appearing  on  the  Continent ;  .  .  .  intent 
160 


DECEMLBER 

on  making  the  entire  Church  in  Europe  what  he 
felt  that  it  should  be,  —  the  living  witness  for  the 
Master,  the  guide  to  the  erring,  the  refuge  of  the 
oppressed,  a  celestial  helper  to  all  disturbed  but 
faithful  souls.  ...  I  think  of  him  in  his  physical 
weakness,  raising  armies,  subduing  nobles,  curb- 
ing kings,  directing  the  Church,  and  he  represents 
the  invincible  mind  which  more  and  more  was  to 
govern  and  pervade  the  whole  frame  of  society.  I 
think  of  him  in  his  personal  spirit,  contemplative, 
devout,  intensely  practical,  yet  marvellously  lofty, 
self-sacrificing,  sincere,  and  passionately  devoted  to 
what  he  esteemed  the  noblest  ends,  and  he  repre- 
sents the  consecrated  heart,  humble,  intrepid,  and 
near  to  the  Master's,  from  which  civilization  must 
always  take  its  finest  and  divinest  force.  .  .  .  The 
spiritual  sublimed  the  natural  in  him.  Celestial 
forces  broke  through  his  life  into  the  dark  secular 
spheres.  From  worlds  on  high  came  the  supplies 
of  his  amazing  and  invincible  energy.  .  .  .  One 
does  not  know  where  else  to  look  for  a  more  lofty 
and  shining  exhibition  of  the  power  of  Faith  as 
a  subjective  spiritual  force,  and  of  the  enthusiasm 
which  it  inspires.  —  DR.  R.  s.  STORKS. 

ffoli    The  first  foundation  of  any  spiritual  work 

is  a  detached  heart.     Neither  birth,  fortune, 

talent,  nor  genius  exceeds  in  value  a  detached  heart. 

LACORDAIRE. 


The  things  that  are  impossible  to  man  are 
possible  to  God  ;  the  things  that  are  impos- 
161 


DECEMBER 

sible  to  man  without  God  are  not  only  possible 
but  natural  to  man  when  he  cooperates  with  God 
working  in  him.  You  may  gaze  forever  on  an 
example  set  before  you,  on  a  goodness  which,  if 
gained,  would  be  the  kingdom  of  heaven  within 
you,  and  yet  be  nothing  but  a  gazer,  because  your 
will  is  too  feeble  in  resolve,  your  soul  too  untrue  in 
impulse  and  in  love  to  aim  at  and  execute  the  work 
proposed.  ...  In  spiritual  things  we  are  both 
instruments  and  agents ;  we  work  with  our  souls, 
and  to  achieve  higher  or  severer  work,  our  soul,  our 
personal  power,  must  be  recast,  making  what  before 
was  impossible  to  become  possible  through  new 
indwellings  of  God.  No  man  can  do  the  works 
of  Christ  unless  Christ  be  in  him.  —  DR.  j.  H.  THOM. 

£l£  The  charge  of  the  new  institution  was  given  to 
a  poor  priest  without  birth  and  without  fortune 
who  was  to  become  celebrated  in  the  world  under  the 
name  of  S.  Vincent  de  Paul.  That  work  was  not 
sufficient  for  the  ardor  of  his  charity.  The  young,  the 
sick,  the  ignorant,  the  galley-slaves,  all  who  suffered 
in  mind  or  body  seemed  to  call  S.  Vincent  to  their 
aid ;  he  founded  in  161 7,  in  the  little  parish  of  Bresse, 
the  charitable  association  of  the  Servants  of  the 
Poor,  which  became  in  Paris  the  Congregation  of 
the  Servants  of  the  Sick  Poor,  and  the  cradle  of  the 
Sisters  of  Charity.  They  will  have,  said  S.  Vincent, 
for  a  convent  only  the  houses  of  the  sick,  for  a 
chapel  only  the  church  of  their  parish,  for  a  cloister 
only  the  streets  of  the  city  or  the  halls  of  the  hos- 
pitals, for  their  fence  only  obedience,  for  their  bars 
162 


DECEMBER 

only  the  fear  of  God.  Eighteen  thousand  daughters 
of  S.  Vincent  de  Paul  testify  to-day  to  the  wise 
foresight 'of  their  founder ;  his  rules  have  endured 
like  his  work  and  the  necessities  of  the  poor. 

GUIZOT. 

yp    Amidst  Thuringia's  wooded  hills  she  dwelt, 

A  high-born  princess,  servant  of  the  poor, 
Sweetening  with  gracious  words  the  food  she  dealt 
To  starving  throngs  at  Wartburg's  blazoned  door. 

Death  found  her  busy  at  her  task  :  one  word 

Alone  she  uttered  as  she  paused  to  die, 

"  Silence  !  "  —  then    listened    even    as    one    who 

heard 
With  song  and  wing  the  angels  drawing  nigh ! 

Now  Fra  Angelico's  roses  fill  her  hands, 
And  on  Murillo's  canvas,  Want  and  Pain 
Kneel  at  her  feet.     Her  marble  image  stands 
Worshipped  and  crowned  in  Marburg's  holy  fane. 

WHITTIER. 

Pjt    Slow  ages  passed  :  and  lo  !  another  came, 
An  English  matron  in  whose  simple  faith 
Nor  priestly  rule  nor  ritual  had  claim, 
A  plain  uncanonized  Elizabeth. 

To  melt  the  hearts  that  harshness  turned  to  stone 
The  sweet  persuasion  of  her  lips  sufficed, 
And  guilt,  which  only  hate  and  fear  had  known, 
Saw  in  her  own  the  pitying  love  of  Christ. 


DECEMBER 

So  wheresoe'er  the  guiding  Spirit  went 
She  followed,  finding  every  prison  cell 
It  opened  for  her  sacred  as  a  tent 
Pitched  by  Gennesaret  or  Jacob's  well. 

United  now,  the  Briton  and  the  Hun, 
Each,  in  her  own  time,  faithful  unto  death, 
Live  sister  souls !  in  name  and  spirit  one, 
Thuringia's  saint  and  our  Elizabeth  ! 

WHITTIER. 

Eepentante,  Stepiratton,  fHercp 

]£j*jj  And  the  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt 
among  us.  —  s.  JOHN  i.  14. 

For  God  sent  not  his  Son  into  the  world  to  con- 
demn the  world  ;  but  that  the  world  through  him 
might  be  saved.  —  s.  JOHN  iii.  17. 

If  any  man  sin,  we  have  an  advocate  with  the 
Father,  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous. —  i  JOHN  ii.  i. 

The  greatest  of  faults,  I  should  say,  is  to  be 
conscious  of  none.  Who  is  called  "  the  man 
according  to  God's  own  heart "  ?  David,  the  He- 
brew king,  had  fallen  into  sins  enough;  blackest 
crimes ;  there  was  no  want  of  sins.  And  thereupon 
the  unbelievers  sneer  and  ask,  "Is  this  your  man 
according  to  God's  heart  ?  "  The  sneer,  I  must  say, 
seems  to  me  but  a  shallow  one.  ...  Of  all  acts,  is 
not,  for  a  man,  repentance  the  most  divine  ?  The 
deadliest  sin,  I  say,  were  that  same  supercilious 
consciousness  of  no  sin,  —  that  is  death.  David's 
164 


DECEMBER 

life  and  history,  as  written  for  us  in  those  Psalms 
of  his,  I  consider  to  be  the  truest  emblem  ever 
given  of  a  man's  moral  progress  and  warfare  here 
below.  Struggle  often  baffled,  sore  baffled,  down 
as  into  entire  wreck ;  yet  a  struggle  never  ended ; 
ever,  with  tears,  repentance,  true  unconquerable 
purpose,  begun  anew.  .  .  .  That  his  struggle  be  a 
faithful  unconquerable  one :  that  is  the  question 
of  questions.  —  CARLYLE. 

The  one  °nty  sin  which  is  beyond  the  reach 
of  Absolution,  the  one  only  sin  which  the 
Precious  Blood  cannot  absolve,  is  the  sin  that  is 
not  repented  of;  that  is  the  sole  and  only  sin  that 
shall  not  be  washed  as  white  as  snow. 

CARDINAL  MANNING. 

Time's  waters  will  not  ebb,  nor  stay, 
Power  cannot  change  them,  but  Love  may ; 
What  cannot  be,  Love  counts  it  done. 
Deep  in  the  heart,  her  searching  view 
Can  read  where  Faith  is  fix'd  and  true, 
Through  shades  of  setting  life  can  see  Heaven's 
work  begun. 

Till  as  each  moment  wafts  us  higher, 
By  every  gush  of  pure  desire, 
And  high-breath'd  hope  of  joys  above, 
By  every  secret  sigh  we  heave, 
Whole  years  of  folly  we  outlive, 
In  His  unerring  sight  who  measures  Life  by  Love. 

KEBLE. 


DECEMBER 

Oh>  wake  then,  ye  that  slumber  on  in  this 
torpor  of  evil  habits  and  of  sin  !  Wake,  be- 
fore you  are  awakened  by  the  trump  of  the  archan- 
gel !  .  .  .  Hear  the  holy  angels  sing,  "  Glory  to 
God  in  the  highest  and  on  earth  peace,  good-will 
towards  men  ;  "  see  those  bright  and  pure  spirits 
longing  to  be  rejoined  by  you,  and  desiring  your 
coming  ;  and  then  look  down  on  the  passions  which 
are  holding  you  captives,  the  desires  which  you  are 
serving,  the  cares  and  unsatisfied  longings  which 
are  destroying  your  peace,  the  petty  troubles  about 
which  you  are  repining,  the  petty  gains,  enjoyments, 
for  which  you  are  bartering  your  souls,  and  then 
say  whether  this  be  worthy  of  your  new  origin,  your 
second  birth,  whether  this  suits  the  character  of  the 
sons  of  God  and  heirs  of  everlasting  life,  and  make 
your  choice.  —  DR.  PUSEY. 

flfoii    I    bore  with    thee  long  weary  days    and 

nights, 

Through  many  pangs  of  heart,  through  many  tears  ; 
I  bore  with  thee,  thy  hardness,  coldness,  slights, 
For  three-and-thirty  years. 

Who  else  had  dared  for  thee  what  I  have  dared  ? 
I  plunged  the  depth  most  deep  from  bliss  above  ; 
I  not  My  flesh,  I  not  My  spirit  spared, 
Give  thou  Me  love  for  love. 

CHRISTINA  ROSSETTI.       v 


The   divine  reason  must  forever  manifest 
itself  anew  in  the  lives  of  men,  and  that  as 
166 


DECEMBER 

individuals.  This  atonement  with  God,  this  identi- 
fication of  the  man  with  the  truth,  is  not  something 
that  can  be  done  once  for  all,  that  can  become  his- 
toric and  traditional,  a  dead  flower  pressed  between 
the  leaves  of  the  family  Bible,  but  must  be  renewed 
in  every  generation,  and  in  the  soul  of  every  man, 
that  it  may  be  valid.  .  .  .  Dante  had  reached  the 
high  altar  where  the  miracle  of  transubstantiation 
is  wrought,  itself  also  a  type  of  the  great  conversion 
that  may  be  accomplished  in  our  own  nature  (the 
lower  thing  assuming  the  qualities  of  the  higher), 
not  by  any  process  of  reason,  but  by  the  very  fire  of 
the  divine  love.  ...  Had  Dante  merely  made  us 
feel  how  petty  the  ambitions,  sorrows,  and  vexations 
of  earth  appear  when  looked  down  on  from  the 
heights  of  our  own  character  and  the  seclusion  of 
our  own  genius,  or  from  the  region  where  we  com- 
mune with  God,  he  had  done  much  :  but  he  has 
done  far  more ;  he  has  shown  us  the  way  by  which 
that  country  far  beyond  the  stars  may  be  reached, 
may  become  the  habitual  dwelling-place  and  for- 
tress of  our  nature,  instead  of  being  the  object  of  its 
vague  aspiration  in  moments  of  indolence. 

LOWELL. 

It  is  a  noble  thing,  that  Purgatorio,  "  Moun- 
tain of  Purification  ;  "  an  emblem  of  the  no- 
blest conception  of  that  age.  If  Sin  is  so  fatal,  and 
Hell  is  and  must  be  so  rigorous,  awful,  yet  in  Repent- 
ance, too,  is  man  purified ;  Repentance  is  the  grand 
Christian  act.  It  is  beautiful  how  Dante  works  it 
out.  The  tremolar  del?  onde,  that  "  trembling  "  of 
167 


DECEMBER 

the  ocean-waves,  under  the  first  pure  gleam  of 
morning,  dawning  afar  on  the  wandering  Two,  is 
as  the  type  of  an  altered  mood.  Hope  has  now 
dawned ;  never-dying  Hope,  if  in  company  still 
with  heavy  sorrow.  They  toil  painfully  up  by  that 
winding  steep,  "  bent-down  like  corbels  of  a  build- 
ing," some  of  them,  —  crushed  together  so  "for 
the  sin  of  pride  ; "  yet  nevertheless  in  years,  in 
ages  and  aeons  they  shall  have  reached  the  top, 
which  is  Heaven's  gate,  and  by  Mercy  shall  have 
been  admitted  in.  The  joy  too,  of  all,  when  one 
has  prevailed ;  the  whole  mountain  shakes  with 
joy,  and  a  psalm  of  praise  rises  when  one  soul  has 
perfected  repentance  and  got  its  sin  and  misery 
left  behind.  —  CARLYLE. 

I 
£]££    Art  thou  weary,  art  thou  languid, 

Art  thou  sore  distrest  ? 
"  Come  to  Me,"  saith  One,  "  and,  coming, 
Be  at  rest !  " 

Hath  He  marks  to  lead  me  to  Him, 

If  He  be  my  Guide  ? 
"In  His  feet  and  hands  are  wound-prints, 

And  His  side." 

Is  there  diadem,  as  monarch 

That  His  brow  adorns  ? 
"  Yea;  a  crown,  in  very  surety,  — 

But  of  thorns  !  " 

168 


DECEMBER 

If  I  find  Him,  if  I  follow, 

What  his  guerdon  here  ? 
"  Many  a  sorrow,  many  a  labor, 

Many  a  tear !  " 

If  I  ask  Him  to  receive  me, 

Will  He  say  me  nay  ? 
"  Not  till  earth,  and  not  till  heaven, 

Pass  away  !  " 

Finding,  following,  keeping,  struggling, 

Is  he  sure  to  bless  ? 
"  Angels,  martyrs,  prophets,  virgins, 

Answer,  Yes !  " 

S.  STEPHEN  THE  SABAITE,  TR.  BY  NEALE. 

When  the  word  goes  forth  for  dying, 
Listen  to  my  lonely  crying ; 
In  death's  dreadful  hour  delay  not; 
Jesu,  come,  be  swift  and  stay  not ; 

Protect  me,  save,  and  set  me  free ! 
When  by  Thee  my  soul  is  bidden, 
Let  not  then  Thy  face  be  hidden ! 
Lover,  whom  't  is  life  to  cherish, 
Shine,  and  leave  me  not  to  perish ! 

Bend  from  Thy  cross  and  succor  me  ! 

S.   BERNARD   OF   CLAIRVAUX, 
TR.   BY  J.   ADDINGTON   SYMONDS. 

laud  2Deo 


ZZ32 

US  56 


